Background

Anna Sergeyevna Kournikova was born on June 7, 1981, in Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union (now Moscow, Russian Federation). She is a daughter of Sergei Kournikov, a Greco-Roman wrestler, and Alla Kournikova, a 400-metre runner and tennis coach. Her half-brother Allan is a youth golf world champion and her cousin Evgeny Korolev is a former tennis player.

Education

Anna Kournikova took up the tennis racquet for the first time at five. In the beginning, it was just a way to keep busy an active child and Anna's parents, though athletes themselves, didn't expect her to turn professional one day. By the age of seven, Kournikova was accepted as a junior member in Moscow's noted Spartak Tennis Club where Larissa Preobrazhenskaya was a coach. The city's climate restricted outdoor training sessions to four months, and indoor courts were expensive.

In 1989, Anna debuted at junior tournaments and soon began to capture attention worldwide. At the age of ten, the budding tennis player was offered a scholarship to Nick Bollettieri's renowned tennis academy in Bradenton, Florida, which trained such tennis legends as Monica Seles, Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras. In the early 1990s, the Kournikovs moved to the United States.

A fourteen-year-old girl, Anna Kournikova triumphed at the European Championships and the Italian Open Junior tournament. Later that year, she was the youngest player to be the first at the 18-and-under division of the Junior Orange Bowl tennis tournament. She also became the ITF Junior World Champion U-18 and Junior European Champion U-18 that made her No. 1 in the junior division.

Anna Kournikova graduated from a Russian high school in 1997 and attended Russian State University of Physical Education, Sport, Youth and Tourism.

Career

Anna Kournikova turned professional at the age of fourteen when she debuted at the WTA Tour in Moscow, as a qualifier at the Moscow Ladies Open. She defeated Marketa Kochta but lost in the second round to Sabine Appelmans. At Moscow Ladies Open, Kournikova made her first WTA Tour doubles final which she lost to Meredith McGrath and Larisa Savchenko-Neiland, pairing with Aleksandra Olsza of Poland.

A year later, in her first Grand Slam, the young tennis player reached the fourth round of the US Open but was beaten by Steffi Graf. Her ranking improved from 144 to No. 69 in the Top 100 after the event. Kournikova was also included in the national team of Russia at the Summer Olympics held that year in Atlanta, Georgia. She finished the season as No. 57 in the ranking.

In 1997, at the age of 16, Kournikova won No. 5 Iva Majoli and No. 10, Anke Huber, at Wimbledon and reached the semifinals before losing 6-3, 6-2 to Hingis. Anna became the second female player in the Open Era, after Chris Evert, to reach the Wimbledon semifinals in her debut. Kournikova then reached the third round at the French Open, and was again defeated by Martina Hingis. The US Open ended for Kournikova by the loss to Irina Spîrlea in the second round. However, she qualified for the third round of the women's doubles pairing with Likhovtseva. Kournikova jumped to No. 32 in singles and to No. 41 in doubles following the season.

Early the next year, she rose to No. 16 in the WTA's ranking by reaching her first final, in Key Biscayne, Florida. She knocked off four straight top-10 players (Seles, Conchita Martinez, Lindsay Davenport and Arantxa Sanchez Vicario) before losing the title match to Venus Williams in a full three sets at the Miami Open. She also defeated Steffi Graf at Eastbourne International but injured her thumb. The trauma forced her to miss both the semifinals match against Arantxa Sánchez Vicario and the entire Wimbledon of 1998.

Kournikova ended the next season with the number one in doubles. In 2000, she finished number eight, her first top 10 singles ranking. Her beauty and success attracted sponsors. She promoted brokerages and dot-com companies on television and appeared as a cameo in Me, Myself & Irene movie starring Jim Carrey. Some observers claimed that such off-court distractions hurt Kournikova's game, although an injured left foot still troubled her.

In 2001, Anna Kournikova reached the quarterfinals of the Australian Open. Although the stress fracture of the left foot made her withdraw from the year's French Open and Wimbledon, she stayed active in public life. It seemed as though she didn't care about staying on the court. She attracted flashbulbs everywhere she went, making headlines with her latest photos, and starred in a music video "Escape" of a Spanish singer Enrique Iglesias. Kournikova's public life began to prevail over her athletic one.

Kournikova came back to the court at the Sparkassen Cup (defunct from 2003) in Leipzig, Germany. The victory at doubles of the Sydney International in pair with Barbara Schett was followed by two losses in the finals in Tokyo and San Diego, pairing with Iroda Tulyaganova and Martina Hingis, respectively. Hingis and Kournikova triumphed at the Kremlin Cup. Anna Kournikova finished the 2001 season at 74th row in singles and at 26th in doubles in the world ranking.

The next year was quite rich in victories. The semifinals of Auckland, Tokyo, Acapulco and San Diego, and the final of the China Open, although lost to Anna Smashnova, were in Kournikova's collection of achievements. The loss of the doubles final at Sydney in pair with Martina Hingis was recompensed by their second Grand Slam doubles title together, at the Australian Open. Kournikova lost the doubles quarterfinals of the US Open and the doubles semifinals of Wimbledon, the latter to Serena and Venus Williams. Having only 28-24 as her record in singles matches, Kournikova was ranked 35 in singles and No. 11 in doubles following 2002.

The next season, full of injuries, in particular, grave back and spinal problems, including a herniated disk, came to be the final in Kournikova's athletic career. As a professional tennis player, she led her last WTA match in May. Anna Kournikova retired with No. 305 in singles and No. 176 in doubles.

After retiring from the active sport, Anna Kournikova, as a tennis celebrity, has appeared in a great number of different exhibitions and charity matches, including for the St. Louis Aces of World Team Tennis, the 2005 charity match for the Indian Ocean tsunami, and the 2008 event held to raise money for the Elton John AIDS Foundation and Atlanta AIDS Partnership Fund. She also participated at the "Legendary Night" match held at the Turning Stone Event Center in Verona, New York, the next year.

As a TV personality, Kournikova was among the trainers of the 12 season of The Biggest Loser show broadcasted on NBC. Since the beginning of her tennis career, she has been the face of many advertising campaigns and the spokesperson of various worldwide known brands, including Adidas, Omega, Amazon, and others. Kournikova has been regularly featured on covers of various periodicals as well, especially men's magazines, including Sports Illustrated Swimsuit, FHM and Maxim.

Achievements

• 

  Though having won no WTA Tour singles tournaments, Anna Kournikova went down in the history of sports as arguably one of the most marketable women ever.
  
  The 16 doubles titles during her relatively short career in professional tennis, including two Australian Open Championships, provided her with the No. 1 in the nomination of the WTA Tour rankings. Her career doubles record was 200-71. Kournikova made only four finals of 130 singles events played, none in a Grand Slam match, and never won one. Her best career ranking in singles was No. 8.
  
  Kournikova's achievements in public life have been almost more impressive than the athletic ones. Web sites related to the attractive young Russian woman have annually received among the most "hits" worldwide. In 2000, the tennis player was given the Lycos Sports Award as the Web's Most Searched Athlete. ESPN televised the filming of her skin-revealing 2003 calendar five times during Christmas week, 2002. It had a 1.1 rating, considered high for an ESPN non-event telecast. She managed to remain one of the most searched persons on the Internet during the 2010s, even after retiring for good from professional tennis.
  
  In 2000, Anna Kournikova was one of five female tennis players named to Forbes magazine's Power 100 in Fame and Fortune list at No. 58. She has been subsequently featured, often on the top, in similar rates of other notable media, including FHM's 100 Sexiest Women in the World and Maxim magazine's Hot 100 lists.
  
  A computer game, Anna Kournikova's Smash Court Tennis, was developed by Namco and released for European and Japanese users of PlayStation in November 1998. Three years later, the computer virus named after Kournikova was detected. A simple computer worm, it was spread all around the world via email.

Works

More photos

• movie

  • Me, Myself & Irene

    (Anna Kournikova appeared in a cameo role in the movie whe...)

    2000

• TV show

  • The Biggest Loser

    (Renowned tennis star and certified trainer Anna Kournikov...)

    2011

Religion

Kournikova is Russian Orthodox, but not explicitly religious - other than wearing crosses around her neck.

Politics

Kournikova is non-political, but supports state-sanctioned athletics.

Views

Anna Kournikova, in addition to being an active participant in various charity matches, is also a Global Ambassador for Population Services International's "Five & Alive" program. It focuses on health issues facing kids under five and their relatives.

Quotations: "I grew up a little girl in the Soviet Union playing at a small sports club. Tennis gave me my life."

"I think it's really important for me not to forget where I came from."

"I worked very hard and I earned all the attention I'm getting."

"A court is like a scene, people want to see attractive people."

"Well, I'm playing for the fans so whenever they come and ask for autographs I always try to give it to everybody because I'm out there for the people."

"When I play, I feel like I'm in a theatre, why should I look ugly then, because I'm a tennis player?"

"I'm like a menu at an expensive restaurant; you can look at me, but you can't afford me."

"Why are people afraid of getting older? You feel wiser. You feel more mature. You feel like you know yourself better. You would trade that for softer skin? Not me!"

"I believe in commitment. I believe in being open and trusting each other and respecting each other completely."

Personality

Physical Characteristics: Anna Kournikova is 1.73 meters tall. She is right-handed and has brown eyes.

Quotes from others about the person

• Sergei Kournikov, Anna's father: "We were young and we liked the clean, physical life, so Anna was in a good environment for sport from the beginning."
  
  Bud Collins, journalist and television sportscaster: "Anna Kournikova is sex with a tennis racket attached."
  
  Billie Jean King, former professional tennis player: "Anna is the real thing. She's great off the ground and quick. Most of all, she loves the limelight and loves the show courts. She's having a good time out here and is poised for the big time."
  
  Peter Bodo, sportswriter and author: "Kournikova is of the post-feminist generation, one more likely to take its cues from MTV, Madonna and Camille Paglia than Ms. She also is of a realistic generation, and in a world in which sex sells – no matter what anyone has said or done so far – she has what the market wants. Having grown up relatively poor in a confused and desolate place (post-Soviet Russia), she is more than glad to exploit her natural gifts for personal gain."
  
  Chris McKendry, journalist: "I do think someday she will hate herself for not giving tennis her best shot. I don't think Kournikova is a fraud or the product of PR packaging. I do think she's a lucky winner of the 'birth lottery' – born beautiful and athletic – and that's not her fault. But she is to blame for underachieving. So when exactly did Kournikova become less of a tennis player and more of a pop icon?"

Interests

• music, foreign languages​​, reading, shopping, cooking, swimming, visiting museums and concerts

• Artists

  Madonna

• Sport & Clubs

  tennis, hockey, basketball

• Athletes

  Monica Seles

• Music & Bands

  pop music

Connections

Anna Kournikova had relationships with a Russian ice hockey player Sergei Fedorov in the early 2000s and there was some talk in media that they were even married for two years. Though, Kournikova's relatives disproved any marriage. The tennis player had a romance with another hockey player of Russia, Pavel Bure, around the same time.

In 2001, Kournikova began a relationship with a noted Spanish singer Enrique Iglesias. Some media reported that the couple married in 2008, separated, reunited and then separated again in 2013. Anna and Enrike have twins Nicholas and Lucy, and a daughter Mary.

Father:

Sergei Kournikov

(born 1961)

After retiring from Greco-Roman wrestling, Sergei Kournikov earned a Ph.D. and taught at the University of Physical Culture and Sport in Moscow. In the early 2000s, he also served part-time as a martial arts instructor of that institution.

Mother:

Alla Kournikova

(born 1963)

Alla Vladimirovna Kournikova divorced Anna's father in 2001 and married American music composer and instrumentalist Baron Michael Moog de Medici with whom he had a son Allan.

coach:

Harold Solomon

(born September 17, 1952)

Dubbed the "Human Backboard," Harold Solomon is a former professional tennis player of the United States. Playing on the court during the 1970s and 1980s, he earned 22 singles titles. He is an inductee of the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Hall of Fame, the USTA Mid Atlantic Section Hall of Fame, the D.C. Sports Hall of Fame, and the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.

Half-brother:

Allan Kournikova

(born September 22, 2004)

Allan Kournikov won three straight U.S. Kids Golf World Championships from 2011 to 2013, and in 2015. He also triumphed at the U.S. Kids Golf European Championships from 2011 to 2015. Allan was featured in the 2013 documentary The Short Game.

ex-boyfriend:

Sergei Fedorov

(born December 13, 1969)

Sergei Viktorovich Fedorov was the first Russian player to win the National Hockey League's (NHL) Hart Trophy as Most Valuable Player in 1994. Playing for the Detroit Red Wings for 13 seasons as a centre, winger or defenceman, he helped the team to win Stanley Cup in 1997, 1998, and 2002. As of 2020, he is the general manager of CSKA Moscow of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL).

ex-boyfriend:

Pavel Bure

(born March 31, 1971)

Pavel Vladimirovich Bure, dubbed The Russian Rocket for his speed, competed at the right-wing position for the Vancouver Canucks, the Florida Panthers and the New York Rangers during 12 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL).

Cousin:

Evgeny Korolev

(born February 14, 1988)

Evgeny Evgenyevich Korolev is a former Russian tennis player. He first swung a tennis racquet at the age of four. Playing for Russia and Kazakhstan, he left active sport in 2017. Apart from Russian, Korolev speaks German, English and Spanish.

Son:

Nicholas Iglesias

(born December 16, 2017)

Daughter:

Lucy Iglesias

(born December 16, 2017)

Daughter:

Mary Iglesias

(born January 30, 2020)

Partner:

Enrique Iglesias

(born May 8, 1975)

A Spanish singer, songwriter, actor, and record producer, Enrique Iglesias is nicknamed the King of Latin Pop. He is known for many hit songs, including 'Bailamos,' 'Rhythm Divine,' 'Be With You,' 'Escape' and 'Hero.'

colleague:

Martina Hingis

(born September 30, 1980)

Hingis is a Swiss former professional tennis player who became the youngest person in the "open" era to win a Grand Slam singles title and the youngest to be ranked world number one. In her relatively short, injury-plagued career, she won five Grand Slam singles titles.

References

• Anna Kournikova A must-have collection of gorgeous shots and a biography of one of the biggest international tennis stars.
  2001
• Anna Kournikova (Women Who Win) Connie Berman examines the obstacles Kournikova overcame in her individual sport.
  2001
• Anna Kournikova A journalist Karen Farrington charts Kournikova's life and career and discovers what exactly made this woman tick.
  2001
• Anna Kournikova Gold Collectors Series Magazine Special Edition.
  2000
• Journeymen 2 In the documentary, Mark Keil is on the comeback trail in the late '90's on the pro tennis tour with a cast of stars such as Roger Federer, Pete Sampras, Anna Kournikova, and Gustavo Kuerten.
  2014
• A Date with Anna: the Making of the Anna Kournikova Calendar A thirty-minute feature starring Kournikova.
  2002
• Official Instagram of Anna Kournikova
• Official Facebook of Anna Kournikova