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 graduated from
Sterling High School in Houston in
1982.
Garrison began suffering from the eating disorder
bulimia when she was 19, following the death of her mother.
"I had never been comfortable with my looks and felt I had lost the only person who loved me unconditionally," Garrison told the British
Observer Sport Monthly in 2006. "The pressure of being labeled 'the next
Althea Gibson' only made things worse. I felt I was never going to be allowed to grow into just becoming me."
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 Navrátilová.
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 Novotná and
Helena Suková 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 WTA singles match of Evert's career. Garrison subsequently lost to Navrátilová 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 3-6, 6-3, 9-7 and the defending Wimbledon champion and World No. 1
Steffi Graf in the semi-finals 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 to reach her first (and only) Grand Slam singles final. There she faced Martina Navrátilová who was gunning for a record ninth women's singles title at Wimbledon, and lost 4-6, 1-6. 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 center 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. She is currently the captain for the U. S. Federation Cup team. She is a member of
Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated.
