The Russian tennis star; Anna Sergeyevna Kournikova
The retired Russian tennis ace Anna Sergeyevna Kournikova was born on 7th June 1981 in Moscow. Anna is also a model apart from her professional tennis career and her stardom has made her one of the most popular athletes all around the world. Anna was equally good in singles and jumped to the number eight position in the world back in 2000 however her specialty beyond any doubt has been doubles, where she has also earned the top world ranking on several occasions. The Russian Anna paired with Martina Hingis triumphed in the Australian Open Championship back in 1999 as well as 2002. Considering their stunning looks, Kournikova as well as Hingis frivolously cited themselves as the “Hot chicks of Tennis”. However, Anna’s professional career has been trimmed for the last few years and probably concluded due to chronic back and spinal issues. The girl recently lives near Miami Beach in Florida and appears in traditional exhibitions as well as in doubles for the World Team Tennis of St. Louis Aces.
Born in Moscow, to Sergei Kournikov and Alla, the girl got her very first racquet back in 1986 when she was five years old. Since then, Anna has been practicing tennis as her favourite game. But the girl never thought of becoming a professional tennis player neither did her parents. However, they did use to appreciate her high spirits and passion about the game of tennis. Anna took admission in a professional tennis academy at seven years of age.
In 1986, the right handed player became the member of the club known as Spartak Tennis Club under the supervision of Larissa Preobrazhenskaya. Two years later, the young girl started contesting in junior championships. Anna at ten years of age agreed on a management contract and moved to Bradenton, Florida for admission at Nick Bollettieri’s Celebrated Tennis Academy.
As a result of her arrival in the United States of America, Anna became prominent, thus making her the worldwide known tennis player she is today. Then she won her very first European Championship when she was just fourteen years of age along with the Italian Junior Tournament. She also beat out the championship to grab the prestigious Junior Orange Bowl, becoming the youngest female athlete ever to grasp the 18 and under division at that event.
As a result, Anna towards the end of the season was capped the International Tennis Federation World C
hampion U-18 as well as Junior European Champion U-18
Anna got a wild card entry into the International Tennis Federation championship which was held in Moscow back in 1994. However, the girl was knocked down by the third seeded Sabine Appelmans. She made her debut in the professional game of tennis when she was fourteen years of age and played Fed Cup as her very first international tournament and eventually triumphed in the end.
The twenty nine years old Anna turned pro in 1995 and straight away grabbed a total of two International Tennis Federation trophies in Midland as well as Rockford. During the same year, Kournikova made her way into the first ever doubles final of Women Tennis Federation Tour at the Kremlin Cup. However, she lost along with her partner Aleksandra Olsza to Larisa Neiland and Meredith McGrath with 6–0, 6–1.
The girl contested in her first Grand Slam Tournament at fifteen years of age and made her way into the fourth round of the United States Open when Steffi Graff knocked her down in their encounter. By the end of this championship, her international ranking also climbed to number sixty four from 144 in the world.
Kournikova from there onwards has won a number of important tennis matches against a great variety of tennis players in terms of their ranking as well as class in both single as well as doubles championships such as her victory over Patricia Hy-Boulais in the Pacific Life Open, s**+-Ting Wang in the Italian Open, Arantxa Sánchez Vicario in the German Open, Radka Zrubáková in the French Open, Chanda Rubin, Barbara Rittner, Anke Huber, Helena Suková as well as Iva Majoli in Wimbledon.
After 1998, the Russian tennis sensation the top twenty world rankings for the firsts time in her professional career and recorded a couple of inspiring victories against some great players such as Martina Hingis, Lindsay Davinport,Monica Seles as well as Steffi Graff. However, the girl after 2000 was suffered with a lot of health issues and thus couldn’t concentrate well on her game.
The aggressive baseline player now appears only in exhibition matches. She has not participated in a WTA Tour since 2003. Currently, she is the spokes person of K-Swiss. Kournikova once again paired with Martina Hingis in this year’s Wimbledon edition 2010 to contest in competitive game for the first time in last seven years in the Invitational Ladies Doubles. The pair defeated the Brit pair Anne Hobbs and Samantha Smith on 29th June this year with 6-2, 6-4 as her most recent performance.
No doubt Anna has been a prominent icon in the world of tennis and fashion. Although her game has been suffering due to her many other interests other than just tennis and her high profile affair with singer songwriter Enrique Iglesias makes her prone to media and gossip. The girl in spite of her retirement is still alive in the hearts of her fans beyond any measure of speculations.
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