Anna Kournikova was born on June 7, 1981 in Moscow, Russia, the
only child of Sergei and Alla. Anna's father was a lecturer at the sports
university in Moscow and a part-time tennis coach. When she was 5 years old, on
Christmas her parents gave her her first tennis racket. She began to play tennis
at a weekly children's sports program on top of being coached by her father.
Anna played tennis everyday, and her parents found her a professional coach,
Larissa Preobraschenskaja, who worked with her from 1985-1989. Anna then started
playing at Moscow's Soklniki Park and the prestigious Spartak Tennis Club. In
1992, at only 11 years old, Anna moved to Florida with her mother to attend Nick
Bollettieri's Tennis Academy in Bradenton.
At 14, Anna Kournikova became the youngest player to win a Fed
Cup match. That same year, she won the European Championships and Italian Open
juniors. She turned pro in 1996 and stepped onto the scene as an International
Tennis Federation Junior World Champion. She reached the fourth round at the
1996 US Open, and she made the semifinals at Wimbledon in 1997. That same year,
Anna graduated from Russian high school and began attending the Physical Culture
Russian University. In 1998, Anna was the first Russian female since 1976 to be
seeded at the US Open. She ended up in the Top 10 in the singles rankings, and
beat Martina Hingis in the quarterfinals at the German Open the same year. She
was the ninth-youngest player to defeat a #1 tennis player before turning 17
since 1968. The next year, in 1999 Anna paired with Martina Hingis and won the
Grand Slam doubles title at the Australian Open.
At the 2000 German Open, despite starting out with the best
ranking of her career, #8 in the world, Anna experienced the first in what
became a string of injuries, and her game suffered for it. In 2002, she was
knocked out of Wimbledon in the first round, and in 2003 she suffered a back
injury and had to withdraw from the Wimbledon games altogether. Instead of
playing, Anna worked as an on-site reporter at the US Open. By October 2003, she
had dropped to a rank of 299th in the world, and, as of March 2004, Anna retired
from professional tennis.
Besides her tennis career, Anna has made a great deal of money
from her endorsements, modeling, and acting. When she was 19 years old, she got
a small, but noticeable part in Me, Myself & Irene (2000) playing a
Motel Manager. She also appeared and played Enrique Iglesias' girlfriend in his
music video "Escape." In 2002, Anna was voted the Sexiest Woman in the World by
FHM's Sexiest Girls poll.
Anna Kournikova is one of the richest women in sports,
reportedly making $10 million a year by 2002. Anna is also the most photographed
woman in sports, and she carries lucrative contracts with companies like Adidas,
Yonex, Berlei (the famous sports bra), Omega, and Lycos. Besides her numerous
calendars and magazine appearances, Anna graced the cover of Sports
Illustrated in June 2000 and appeared in the Swimsuit Edition in 2004.
Anna received a lot of press for her relationships with NHL
hockey players Pavel Bure and Sergei Fedorov. Anna and Sergei became engaged in
1999, and, amid much secrecy, they were later married in Moscow after Anna
turned 20. The marriage didn't last long, and it was over before anyone was
really sure they were ever married. Since her breakup with Sergei, Anna has had
an on-again, off-again romance with Enrique Iglesias. Anna has supposedly been
wearing an engagement ring from Iglesias since March 2004.
Tattoos:
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