anna kournikova

Anna Kournikova was born June 7th 1981 in Moscow. Her parents names are Allah and Sergei. She received her first tennis racquet at 5 years old when her parents sold their TV to buy her one for Christmas. She played in a club near her place until age 11. After which she moved to Bradenton, Florida (USA) to train with Nick Bollitierri. At 14, she represented Russia in a Fed cup match and became the youngest player ever to win a fed cup match.

She won her first professional title in 1999 at Midland, Michigan, an ITF tournament. She was 5th favorite in Illinois the same year and won her 2nd career ITF tournament. Kournikova made her WTA debut at 15 years old at the US Open where she finally lost against #1 player Steffi Graf. She also made it to the double quarter finals in the same tournament. More recently, she won the Rookie of the Year award in 1996. In 1997, she improved very much to even make it to the semis in Wimbledon. She lost to world number one Martina Hingis at the French Open and at Wimbledon. This year, she made her first career WTA final in Key Biscane against Venus Williams in a tough 3 set match. She also won her first doubles title with Monica Seles in Tokyo.

Kournikova is still very young and she seems to have a great future ahead. Her best WTA ranking is 10th reached a few months ago... She's currently 13th in the world and hopes to break the top 5 for next year... Kournikova won her first grand slam title this year (1999) with Martina Hingis in doubles at the Australian Open. Since then, they have played regularly together and have rapidly became one of the best pairs... Anna became #2 in doubles in September 1999, quite a good performance considering she didn't compete in Wimbledon or in the US Open...

Anna's love life is very complicated ? Why ? Well, mostly because she does not want to comment any rumors of possible love stories with Pavel Bure, Sergei Federov, Mark Philipoussis or Nicolas Lapentti or any other male celebrity rumored to have kissed or went out with Anna! One thing though that she did deny is the rumor that she was going to marry hockey player Pavel Bure! Komsomolskaya Pravda, a russian newspaper blamed Alla Kournikova (Anna's mother) for sending Bure packing, for ruining her daughter's life by micromanaging her every move. The paper crowded "There's a wise Russian proverb saying 'Before selecting a wife, select a mother in law'". It does seem that she did get involved with him but for some reason it's now over.

Now, Sergei Federov seems back in her life.... but as a friend or boyfriend ?? Who knows! One thing is for sure, Sergei certinaly still loves her. When rumors about Anna's wedding came out, he had to take one week off from the hockey season to go see her. He even brang between 200 and 500 roses (estimations vary a lot!) to show her how much he loved her! I will soon add profiles of all those possible men in her life so you can know the a little better!! If I had to bet, I would say that Anna is going out with Sergei but it's pretty tough to know for sure as we know they are very close. They have been hanging out for many many years now... But Sergei has been attending many of Anna's latest tournaments and even though it could be as a friend, it's more likely that there's more into it! At this year's Valentine's Day, Anna made the trip to see Sergei which certainly can leave to presumptions! Now, one thing that a lot of reporters have found out lately is that it's useless to try to make Anna talk about her emotional life, she will not say anyting under any conditions...!!! Except in one tournament where she apparantly said: "There's somebody special".. so we we'd have to guess his name is Sergei!

Kournikova was scheduled to make a competitive comeback at the Powder Byrne Trophy in Surbiton, England against Britain’s Elena Baltacha, but has now been forced to cancel those plans. The Russian has also been forced to withdraw from the DFS Classic next week as she needs more time to recover from the foot injury she sustained in February. Eastbourne officials earlier this week announced Kournikova would be playing their tournament a week before Wimbledon. A spokesperson for the Eastbourne tourney said the Russian is still committed to play, though admitted the latest news was worrying. The stress fracture has already caused Kournikova to miss several top events on the WTA Tour including the second grand slam of the year at Roland Garros

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