In Search Of A Net Gain

Such a thought would have been unheard of not long ago in the Soviet Union. For one thing, the U.S.S.R. didn't produce any players good enough to make big money. But with the addition of tennis to the Olympics, the Soviets have started to make strides in developing stars in the sport. Now, two other women from the U.S.S.R., Savchenko and Leila Meskhi, are among the top 40, and four men—Chesnokov, Andrei Chersakov, Alexander Volkov and Andres Vysand—are ranked in the top 100.

Then there's Mikhail Gorbachev's policies of glasnost and perestroika, which created the atmosphere in which a teenager can publicly challenge national authority—and possibly get away with it. "If she had said what she did five years ago, that's the end of her," says Martina Navratilova, who defected from Czechoslovakia in 1975. "She'd never go out [of the U.S.S.R.] again."

However Zvereva fares with the Soviet Tennis Federation, she has plenty of support. Her mother, Nina, and her 22-year-old brother, Jaroslav, are pulling for her back home in Minsk. Her father, Marat, who's also her coach, has been at her side through most of the controversy. "I don't think there's anything out of line with her request," he says.

Savchenko has yet to ask for her prize money, preferring to wait and see what happens this week in Moscow. Does she regard her countrywoman as brave? "Maybe so," she says.