Profile
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Biography
| The Russian-born Anna Kournikova left Moscow at the age of nine in order to attend Nick Bollettieri's Tennis Academy in Florida, USA which is the same academy that produced Monica Seles and Andre Agassi. She was the world's topped ranked junior at the end of 1995 shortly after Martina Hingis joined the professional ranks. Kournikova herself turned professional in 1996 and competed in her first grand slam at the US Open that year. She performed exceptionally well and defeated seeded players before finally falling to the eventual winner Steffi Graf in the 4th round. In 1997 she confirmed her position as one of the world's best tennis players by advancing to a semi-final appearance at her first Wimbledon as a professional. In 1998 she moved further up the rankings and appeared in the final of the prestigious Lipton Championships defeating along the way four top 10 players consecutively. Soon after that she scored her first victory over the world number 1 - Hingis and just prior to Wimbledon she broke into the world Top 10 for the first time in her career. A thumb injury before Wimbledon which she got during a match in which she defeated Graf ruled her out of tournaments for the next several months and ever since then she has had a hard time regaining her momentum. The year 1999 began with a controversial Australian Open with her play being marred by poor services. She did however manage to make the 4th round in the singles which is her best result so far in that tournament and she then went on to win the doubles championships with Hingis as her partner. Anna says her game isn’t modeled after any particular player although she lists Graf and Seles as players that she has learned from by watching television. Now at eighteen years of age she is developing her power game and is exhibiting some powerful ground strokes coupled with an outstanding state of mind on court. Anna is indeed superstar material with glamorous looks and she says that if were not for tennis then her passion would be for acting. One of main strengths is that she has an aggressive all-court game which is hard to beat. She has had an agent since the age of 10 and is presently on the verge of the world Top 10 again. |
Other
| Russian high school (graduated in 1997) | |
| Enrique Iglesias (musician; born on May 8, 1975), Pavel Bure (ice hockey player; born on March 31, 1971) | |
| Alla Kournikova | |
| Sergei Kournikov |