Anna Kournikova

Anna Kournikova was born on June 7th, 1981 in Moscow, Russia. Anna Kournikova started playing tennis at a very young age and moved with her parents to Florida, USA, at age nine. There she was enrolled at the Nick Bolletieri Academy, a high profile training center that has produced such stars as Monica Seles and Andre Agassi. Anna Kournikova's Tennis career began promisingly, when anna won many titles when she was 13 and 14 years old, including the Orange Bowl in 1995 and the Italian Open, the same year. In fact, Anna Kournikova ended that year as the Junior European Champion and Junior World Champion. Kournikova began her professional career by playing in the Fed Cup for Russia while she was still only 14 years old. The following year, anna kournikova performed impressively in her first Grand Slam tournament as a pro: anna got as far as the fourth round at the US Open, to be defeated there by then World No. 1, Steffi Graf. Anna Kournikova also played for the Russia tennis team at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

1996 saw Anna Kournikova advance as far as the semi-finals at Wimbledon. Three years later in 1999 Anna Kournikova won her first Grand Slam title by partnering Martina Hingis in the women’s doubles, a partnership that was to continue for a while. However, after this the titles seemed to dry up, as Anna Kournikova never won a singles WTA title. Still, anna ranked among the top 20 quite consistently on the WTA roster. Anna Kournikova reached the semi-finals and finals of many, without actually winning the title. Despite this lack of wins, Anna Kournikova remains among the most searched-for athletes on the Internet. Anna Kournikova has earned huge amounts of money through her endorsement deals, including contracts with names like Rolex and Adidas. Beautiful Anna Kournikova continues to enjoy immense popularity on Internet fan websites, endorsement commercials and she has even done a small role in a mainstream Hollywood film.

Anna Kournikova underwent ankle and back surgery in 2001 and 2003 respectively, due to which her tennis playing has been restricted. Anna Kournikova has been off the professional circuit on and off, though she played a good number of charity matches. In total, she has won 16 WTA titles, which include 3 Grand Slams. Annakournikova achieved a career high of number 8 on the WTA rankings and a top ranking on the doubles tour. Here is a general, broad outline of Anna’s tennis career. 1995 saw Anna Kournikova make her debut as a qualifier in Moscow on a wildcard: she was unranked. Anna Kournikova ended the year ranked No. 281 after losing to then-No.3 Sabine Applemans. Showing a dramatic improvement, kournikova ended 1996 ranked No. 57, which was a leap of a staggering 224 spots. Annakournikova made her Grand Slam debut at the US Open, reaching as far as the fourth round before losing to then World No. 1 Steffi Graf. Soon afterwards, Anna Kournikova improved her ranking to No. 69, thus making her debut in the top 100 from the No. 144 position. At age 14, she was also the youngest woman tennis player to play for Russia at the Fed Cup, helping that country win over Sweden. Anna Kournikova went on to represent her native Russia at the 1996 Olympics, but crashed out in the 1st round. However, her Wimbledon debut in 1997 year was impressive. Anna Kournikova became only the second woman in the Open era to reach the semi-final stage at her debut and she broke into the top-50 in the world for the first time, at No.48. Anna Kournikova then went to the third round at the French Open, losing to Martina Hingis, then World No.1. Kournikova had to withdraw from a tournament in Philadelphia that year with a foot injury. The following year, she finally made it into the top 20 in the world with a No.16 ranking following a career-first WTA singles final at Miami, defeating the likes of Seles (No.4) and Conchita Martinez (No.9), No.2 Davenport and No. 8 Sanchez-Vicario en route. At Berlin later that year anna performed impressively, again defeating No.1 Hingis and No.5 Sanchez-Vicario on her way to the semi-final. Then, Kournikova reached the fourth round at both Roland Garros and Flushing Meadow. Anna Kournikova beat Steffi Graf at Eastbourne in the quarter final, thus handing Graf only her third grass-court defeat in the entire decade of the 1990s. In June 1998 AnnaKournikova entered the top 10 for the first time, and ended 1999 with an impressive No.1 rank in women’s doubles, winning her first doubles Grand Slam title (Australian Open) with first-time partner Martina Hingis. She also reached the fourth round at all four singles Grand Slam events. Anna Kournikova was sidelined by injuries for some months after this, but she returned in 2000 to break into the world top 10 at a career-best No.8. She reached the quarterfinal stage in the Australian Open of 2001, before being plagued by injury again. Anna Kournikova did come back to reach the final at the event in Luxembourg, before losing to eventual winner Kim Clijsters.

Anna Kournikova and Hingis won the Australian Open doubles again in 2002. Anna Kournikova went on to be a semi-finalist at events in Auckland and Tokyo. Anna Kournikova also was a semi finalist at Acapulco and at the Wimbledon doubles. At Shanghai, she reached her singles final in 2 years, but lost the title to No.1 seed Anna Smashnova. However, she did win the doubles event at Shanghai with new partner J.Lee, subsequently withdrawing from the rest of the season following another ankle injury. The year 2003 was also marred by injury of the adductor and back, losing early in tournaments anna did play in. Finally, she withdrew altogether from the 2003 circuit due to a recurring back injury sustained at the Australian Open that year where she lost in the second round to Justine Henine-Hardine.

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