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Anna Kournivova Biography
Russian-born Anna Kournikova left Moscow at the age of 9
to come to Nick Bollettieri's Tennis Academy in Florida,
USA - the same academy which has also produced Monica
Seles and Andre Agassi.
Anna Kournikova was the world's topped-ranked
junior at the end of 1995, shortly after Martina Hingis
joined the professional ranks. Kournikova herself turned
professional in 1996, and competed in her first grand
slam at the US Open that year. She performed
exceptionally well, defeating seeded players before
finally falling to eventual champion Steffi Graf in
the4th round.
In 1997, Anna Kournikova affirmed her position amongst the world's
top players, highlighted by a semi-final appearance at
her first Wimbledon as a professional. In 1998 Anna Kournikova
further surged up the rankings, with the highlight being
an appearance in the final of the prestigious Lipton
Championships, defeating four top 10 players
consecutively along the way.
Soon after, Anna Kournikova scored her
first victory over world number 1 Hingis, and just prior
to Wimbledon she broke into the world Top 10 for the
first time in her career. A thumb injury before Wimbledon
(suffered in a match where she defeated Graf) ruled Anna Kournikova
out of tournaments for the next few months, and she has since had a tough time regaining her momentum.
1999
began with a controversial Australian Open, her play
marred by poor form with her service. However, Anna Kournikova did
manage to make the 4th round in singles (her best result) as well as winning the doubles championships with
Hingis as her partner.
Anna Kournikova says her game wasn't modeled after any one player,
although lists Graf and Seles as players she has learnt
from, watching television. Now at 18 years of age, Anna Kournikova
developing her power game and exhibiting some fearful
ground-strokes coupled with superb court mentality. Anna Kournikova
is indeed superstar material, with glamorous looks (she
says if not for tennis, her passion would be acting) and
an aggressive all-court game to match. In fact, Anna Kournikova has
had an agent since the age of 10.
She is currently on the
verge of the world Top 10, and others forsee her and
Hingis (along with the Williams sisters) battling it out
for world number 1 in the not-too-distant future.
Regardless, Anna Kournikova will play a great role in the
future of women's tennis.
WINNER: 1996 - ITF/Midland-USA, ITF/Rockford-USA
FINALIST (3): 2000 - Moscow; 1999 - Hilton Head; 1998 -
Miami
SEMIFINALIST : 2000 - Chase Championships, Sydney, Paris
Indoors, Scottsdale, Stanford, San Diego, Luxembourg,
Leipzig
SEMIFINALIST : 1999 - Oklahoma City, Amelia Island,
Eastbourne; 1998 - Hannover, German Open, Eastbourne
SEMIFINALIST : 1997 - Wimbledon
WINNER : 2000 - Chase Championships (w/Hingis), Gold
Coast (w/Halard-Decugis), Hamburg (w/Zvereva),
Filderstadt (w/Hingis), Zurich (w/Hingis), Philadelphia
(w/Hingis)
WINNER : 1999 -Australian Open (w/Hingis), Chase
Championships (w/Hingis), Indian Wells (w/Hingis),
Italian Open (w/Hingis), Eastbourne (w/Hingis)
WINNER :1998 - Tokyo [Princess Cup] (w/Seles)
FINALIST : 2000 - Indian Wells (w/Zvereva), San Diego
(w/Davenport), Moscow (w/Hingis)
FINALIST :1999 - Roland Garros (w/Hingis), Stanford (w/Likhovtseva)
FINALIST :1998 - Paris Indoors (w/Neiland), Linz (w/Neiland),
Filderstadt (w/Sanchez-Vicario)
FINALIST :1995 - Moscow (w/Olsza)
More Facts and Trivia:
Anna Kournikova owns a house in the Miami, Florida
area, but cannot spend much time there because her
tournament schedule keeps her traveling 35 to 40 weeks
out of the year. Her current home is reportedly a "$5
million beach house on Sunset Island 3."Anna Kournikova had
previously been living (when away from the WTA tour) in
a four-bedroom Portofino Tower penthouse with four
levels and a rooftop pool and bar, which was
put up for sale in April, 2002.
Anna Kournikova has said that her main interests apart from tennis
are "Shopping, the beach, eating - especially
chocolate." Anna Kournikova can sometimes be seen eating chocolate
during breaks between games during a match, and in
another interview said her weakness off court was
"Chocolate! Anything chocolate." Although Anna Kournikova doesn't
observe a regimented diet, but her eating is not out of
control: "I don't eat three desserts, or anything like
that, but I'm working out and training every day so I
don't worry about what I eat." When you watch Anna Kournikova play,
you are seeing the "real" Anna: "My hair gets bleached
by the sun, I've never dyed it. And I never wear make-up
when I'm playing, I don't have time to even think about
that."
Anna Kournikova has a dog, a miniature Doberman named "Genie".
The
dog once made the news when an airliner crew claimed
Anna Kournikova and her mother Alla refused to keep Genie in a
carrying case (which they denied). Anna Kournikova says: "I love
Dobermans. They look like horses, so graceful. I had one
when I was little, so I love that dog."
In an interview in July, 2002, Anna Kournikova said: "I don't like
to talk about myself that much. I get shy sometimes.
People don't realize that. [In public] I'm kind of
always on the defense because I'm used to people
grabbing at me a little bit. But if I'm with my friends
at my house, I can laugh and joke. With people I don't
know well, I'm thinking maybe they want to take
something from me. I'm not as comfortable."
Anna Kournikova parents, Alla and Sergei Kournikov, traveled with
Anna Kournikova to her tournaments (usually acting as her coaches)
for most of her career. But after the Italian Open in
May, 2002, they stopped this practice, possibly to
eliminate any possible distraction from Anna Kournikova's tennis
career. Anna Kournikova hired coach Harold Solomon to help her
return to her pre-stress-fracture form at about the same
time. Solomon said: "...that's Anna's choice. I
definitely didn't say anything like 'It's me or your
parents' [as coaches]." The usually overeager media has
made no insinuations about Anna Kournikova and her coach "getting
involved". "The only reason I hesitated at all," Solomon
said about becoming Anna Kournikova coach, "is that I still
have a 16-year-old son and my wife at home and traveling
is the toughest thing." Alla and Sergei are presumably
spending more time in Anna Kournikova's otherwise empty Florida
home, or traveling to Moscow, where the last word was
that Sergei was still teaching occasionally. |
