After all, the 26-year-old who is often captured with her head buried under her towel during changeovers as she seeks some refuge from the sounds and fury of battle, could be on the verge of becoming the world number one.
She wept after being beaten by Serena Williams in the Wimbledon final last year and shed more bitter tears in front of a packed Arthur Ashe stadium when trounced by Kim Clijsters in the U.S. Open final.
Story continues below ↓advertisement | your ad hereWhile those final appearances helped her climb to a career-high ranking of two, the crushing manner of the defeats and the tears that followed did little to shed her image as a mentally brittle player.
"I'm not Serena Williams who can hit a serve 200 miles per hour, I'm not Maria Sharapova who can hit a winner on one ball, I don't think I'm Rafael Nadal, who is physically unbelievable," she bristled in an interview with Reuters after reaching the fourth round of the Australian Open with a nervy straight sets win against Lucie Safarova on Saturday.
"If I'm not mentally strong, then how am I number two in the world?"
Sitting wearing a bright green sweater emblazoned with the words "Love and Hope," Zvonareva shows that she cares passionately about her profession and she explained her often emotional on-court persona.
"When I watch the ball for a very long time and try to concentrate, my eyes get tired and watery, so I just put the towel over so it's a bit dark, and close my eyes to relax," she said. "Sometimes, you know, you might cry, but lots of the time, my eyes are just watery, it's just intensity probably in the eyes. It's just how it goes."
"And if you lose a couple of big matches I think it's normal to cry sometimes because it shows that you care," she added after her grand slam final tears.
While the losses do hurt, the intense Muscovite with piercing green eyes said she has matured over the past year, helped by her return to school to study international economic relations at a university aligned to Russia's foreign ministry.
The daughter of sporty parents -- her mother was an Olympic bronze medalist in field hockey -- Zvonareva already has a physical education degree and lists a heavy tome by Tolstoy as one of her favorite books.
"For me the most important part of it is to learn different things," said Zvonareva, who matched her mother's Olympic exploits with a bronze medal at the 2008 Beijing Games.
"Definitely it helps me (get my mind off tennis). I try to develop myself not only as a tennis player but as a person as well, and I think that's very important."
Zvonareva could snatch the world's top ranking from Caroline Wozniacki should the top-seeded Dane fail to reach the semi-final, but a potential quarter-final with Clijsters, the woman who gave her an almighty schooling at Flushing Meadows, stands in her way.
"It is part of the game that I'm really enjoying, the challenge," said Zvonareva. She's a great player, but there is no one that I fear."
Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.Without injured Williams sisters, some buzz goneNadal set for Mallorca role
