In 1983, Cherneva won the European amateur championships in women's and mixed doubles and took bronze in the same disciplines at the 1983 Summer Universiade. From the same year, she started playing in international professional tennis tournaments. In 1984, she won her first ITF titles in San Antonio and Delray Beach, and at the Wimbledon Championships advanced with Savchenko to quarterfinals, after defeating third seed Kathy Horvath and Virginia Ruzici, as well as Chris Evert and Catherine Tanvier. In the next three years, Parkhomenko and Savchenko won seven Virginia Slims tournaments including four in 1987. They played three times in a row at the Virginia Slims Championships, and in March 1986 advanced there to semifinals. In 1987, they reached semifinals at Wimbledon, after defeating world's best pair, recent Grand Slam winners Martina Navratilova and Pam Shriver.