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Zina Lynna Garrison (b. November 16, 1963, in Houston, Texas) is
a former professional tennis player from the United States. During her career,
she was a women's singles runner-up at Wimbledon in 1990, a three-time Grand
Slam mixed doubles champion, and a women's doubles Gold Medalist at the 1988
Olympic Games.
An African-American and the youngest of seven children, Garrison
started playing tennis at the age of 10 and entered her first tournament
at the age of 12. Her success as a junior player quickly made the tennis
world take notice. At the age of 14 she won the national girls' 18s title.
And then in 1981, she won both the Wimbledon and US Open junior titles and
was ranked the World No. 1 junior player.
Garrison turned professional in 1982, and skipped her graduation
at Ross Sterling High School to compete in the French Open, her first tournament
as a professional, where she reached the quarter-finals before being knocked-out
by Martina Navratilova.
Despite battling bulimia during her first few years on the
tour, Garrison enjoyed notable success on-court. She reached the Australian
Open semi-finals in her first full year on the tour - 1983 - and finished
the year ranked the World No. 10. She won her first top-level singles titles
in 1984 at the European Indoor Championships in Zurich. She was a Wimbledon
semi-finalist in 1985, and in 1986 she won her first tour doubles at the
Canadian Open (partnering Gabriela Sabatini).
At the Australian Open in 1987, Garrison won the mixed doubles
(partnering Sherwood Stewart) and finished runner-up in the women's doubles
(partnering Lori McNeil). A year later, Garrison and Stewart captured the
mixed doubles title at Wimbledon.
At the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, Garrison teamed with
Pam Shriver to win the women's doubles Gold Medal for the United States,
defeating Jana Novotna and Helena Sukova of Czechoslovakia in the final 4-6,
6-2, 10-8. And Garrison defeated Shriver in the quarter-finals of the singles
event, where she won a Bronze Medal.
In 1989, Garrison defeated Chris Evert 7-6, 6-2 in the quarter-finals
of the US Open in what proved to be the final match of Evert's career. Garrison
subsequently lost to Navratilova in the semi-finals. She finished 1989 ranked
a career-high World No. 4 in singles.
The highlight of Garrison's career came in 1990 at Wimbledon.
She defeated the French Open champion Monica Seles in the quarter-finals
and the defending Wimbledon champion and World No. 1 Steffi Graf in the semi-finals
to reach her first (and only) Grand Slam singles final. There she faced Martina
Navratilova who was gunning for a record ninth women's singles title at Wimbledon,
and lost 6-4, 6-1. However Garrison claimed her third Grand Slam mixed doubles
title at Wimbledon that year (partnering Rick Leach).
In 1992 Garrison finished runner-up in the Australian Open
women's doubles (partnering Mary Joe Fernandez).
Garrison retired from the professional tour in 1996. During
her career, she won 14 top-level singles titles and 20 doubles titles.
Garrison married Willard Jackson in September 1989, however
the marriage ended in divorce in 1997. Garrison relapsed into bulimia after
her divorce, and spent three days in hospital and one-and-a-half weeks in
a treatment centre following an attempted suicide in 1999.
Since retiring from the tour, Garrison has worked as a television
commentator and maintained active roles in the community and in tennis. She
founded the Zina Garrison Foundation for the Homeless in 1988, and the Zina
Garrison All-Court Tennis Program, which supports inner-city tennis in Houston,
in 1992. She has also served as a member of the United States President's
Council on Physical Fitness and Sports.
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