Anna Kournikova

Anna Kournikova

Anna Kournikova may be the most popular tennis player in the world not to have won a singles championship. That statistic won’t last for too long, however, as this 19-year-old Russian is one of the most talented and fastest rising players on the WTA Tour. She has beaten virtually every top player in the women’s field and is the only player since 1987 to defeat four Top Ten players in a row on her way to the '98 Lipton final.

Anna burst onto the scene after much media fanfare by reaching the fourth round in her first Grand Slam tournament, the '96 U.S. Open and the semifinals of her debut at Wimbledon in '97. Since then, she has cracked the top ten singles rankings and captured a Grand Slam doubles title with Martina Hingis at the '99 Australian Open.

Kournikova has already won over a million dollars in career prize money and is one of the most heavily sponsored and marketed players in all of tennis. She has won more than twice as many matches as she has lost on the tour, a considerable feat considering she turned pro at 15.

Anna was a World Junior Champion at age 14 in 1995, and even then she was always the center of attention at events due to her talent and beauty. She possesses a solid all-court game with a powerful serve, clocked at 111 mph (ninth fastest on the tour) and penetrating ground strokes from either side. She also has great hands at the net as evidenced by her '99 top doubles ranking in addition to possessing superior speed and strength.

When Anna Kournikova turned five, she received a Christmas gift that would change her life. "I found my first racquets under the Christmas tree,” Anna says, “but I found out later that my parents sold one of their TVs to get me those racquets." From that moment, Anna has rarely put down her racquet.

She started hitting at Moscow’s Soklniki Park and soon was a member of the prestigious Spartak Tennis Club, coached by the husband of Russian pro Olga Morozova. At eight, Anna began appearing in junior clinics and quickly caught the eye of local tennis scouts. Still, she says, her childhood was “regular, average” as she spent a lot of time shopping, going to amusement parks and spending time with friends.

When the ATP Tour established a major tournament in Moscow in 1990, Anna would have her opportunity to show off her skills for the international tennis community. The nine-year-old prodigy competed in the juniors and soon signed a management deal. Within two years, Anna was headed to Bradenton, Fla., where she would train at coach Nick Bolletierri’s famed tennis academy.

Anna Kournikova was on the professional track, and everyone knew it. At 14, she become the youngest player ever to win a Fed Cup match and captured the European Championships and Italian Open juniors. At the close of 1995, she was ranked No. 1 and crowned as ITF Junior World Champion. She was ready to hit the professional circuit.

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