We examine the career of the Russian player and explain why Kournikova can be described as the best player without WTA title.
If you are a skilled poker player and have an ace and a king on your hand, you know this saying very well. Ace-King means:”Looks good, but never wins”, just like Anna Kournikova, who with her initials is the eponym for this spell. tennisnet. com clears up the myth that Kournikova was a bad tennis player and shows why she can be considered the best player who has never won a WTA tournament.
Anna Kournikova was one of these prodigies who made the leap to professional tennis at an early age. In 1994, Kournikova made his debut at the age of 13 at a professional tennis tournament in her hometown Moscow. Her first match with the pros was a slim one in the tiebreak of the third set. The Russian player got the necessary fine-tuning for the game from the pros at the famous Academy of Nick Bollettieri “Anna never had an idol. She was her own idol,”said the trainer guru about Kournikova.
At the age of 14, Kournikova played her first WTA tournament, also in Moscow. She qualified for the main draw and defeated the German Marketa Kochta in the first round. At the end of 1995, the Russian won the prestigious Orange Bowl and became number one among the junior women. In 1996, Kournikova then took off and established herself among the professionals. Their first bet in the Fed Cup was also a record. The Russian became the youngest female player to win a Fed Cup match. At the 1996 US Open Kournikova sniffed Grand Slam air for the first time. As a 15-year-old, she played her way through to the last sixteen and lost to Steffi Graf, who later became the winner and number one in the world. Kournikova began 1996 as the world’s number 289 and climbed to 55th place in the course of the year. For this huge leap in the world rankings, she was named Newcomer of the Year. It would probably have gone further uphill even earlier if she had not reached her 17th birthday. This would not have been limited to ten tournaments per year.
Its dazzling and youthful appearance and success on the tennis court made Kournikova a highly sought-after advertising object. The agencies were fighting over the beautiful teenage girl. At the age of ten she was contracted by the management giant IMG. The partnership lasted until 1998, then the Russian changed to the agency “Advantage”. Kournikova was already fully aware of her marketing potential when she was a teenager:”I’m pretty, famous and breathtaking,”she is said to have explained again and again, according to her mother Alla:”When I was twelve, every little girl in Russia wanted to wear her hair the way I did and play tennis,”Kournikova said.
The Russian woman not only became a star in her homeland, but also conquered the whole world in the following years. Kournikova knew what it takes to get yourself staged “You can’t just be a great player anymore or just a beautiful person to succeed in this game. You must have everything. The talent, the looks, the brains, the dynamics,”she said at the 1997 Australian Open. She was only 15 years old. In her tennis career she continued to climb steeply. Shortly after turning 16, she made her debut in 1997 at the world’s most prestigious tournament, the “Holy Lawn” in Wimbledon.
And the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club went crazy when Kournikova sensationally reached the semi-finals at her Wimbledon premiere. For the second time after Chris Evert, a Wimbledon debutante had made it so far:”She is as sexy as a 16-year-old can only be,”Evert said about her successor. Kournikova made the tennis court her stage, her personal catwalk. The Russian became a tennis lolita, who played with her charms and her appearance consciously and made the hearts of the men and the pubescent boys jump.
“People ask me,’ why do you have to look pretty in the square? But for me it’s like being in the theater, whenever I’m on the court, I have to express myself. Why do I have to look ugly just because I’m an athlete?”, said the Russian. Sportingly it went on uphill. Between May 1996 and October 1998, Kournikova never lost to a poorly placed player in the world rankings. In 1998, she moved into the top 20 and beat, among others, the Grand Slam winners Martina Hingis, Arantxa Sanchez Vicario and Steffi Graf. She reached her first WTA Tour finale at the Miami tournament, which she lost to Venus Williams. But there were also the first setbacks. In her victory over Graf at the Eastbourne grass court tournament, she injured her thumb so badly that she missed the Wimbledon tournament.
All the players are playing harder against her so that she notices that it is useless to be the prettiest on the court. If her results are as impressive as her beauty, she will be the most adored player in history. But if she fails, the system will crush her,”wrote Natalie Tauziat in her book “The Underside of Women Tennis” about her colleague. In 1999, the year Kournikova became an adult, she continued to play well and stayed consistently in the top 20, but the big breakthrough was in vain. Instead, she caught the “Yips”, a sudden sudden muscle twitch that made it difficult to hit the ball. At the Australian Open 1999 she finally served herself in the record books. In the second round, she made an incredible 31 double errors against the Japanese Miho Saeki. She still holds the record in this category today – both for men and women. Surprisingly, Kournikova won the match, just like in the first round with 23 double errors and in the third round with 14 double errors. After a total of 73 double errors, Kournikova finished in the last sixteen.
Between October 1998 and his departure from the Australian Open in 1999, Kournikova made 182 double mistakes in only ten matches,”I’m really frustrated because everyone watches. I feel good in practice. I serve it normally, there’s no sign of double faults. But when I get to the contest, something happens. I have to get over it and try to fight it like I did today,”Kournikova said after her “record match”. And she got over it, too. At the clay court tournament in Hilton Head she reached her second final on the WTA Tour, which she lost to Martina Hingis. With Hingis, Kournikova initially associated a rivalry on the course, which developed into a successful double alliance.
At the 1994 US Open Junior Tournament, Hingis had swept the Russian 6-0,6-0 from place, and Kournikova said:”You won, but I’m prettier and much more marketable than you.” Hingis said in 1998 in the Sports Illustrated about Kournikova:”She’s very pretty, but I’m sure she’d rather take the pages with Kournikova. At their first tournament, the Australian Open, they won the title. The duo became one of the best women’s doubles in the world with an outstanding rate. Between 1999 and 2002 the duo played in 18 tournaments. Yield: eleven titles (two Australian Open titles, two World Cup titles), four finals (French Open), one semi-final and two quarter-finals. At the end of 1999 Kournikova even became number one in doubles and finished the year as the best double player.
Despite the good harmony on the course, there was often trouble between Hingis and Kournikova. At the end of 2000, trophies and bouquets are said to have flown around in the changing room during an exhibition fight. Reason for the “catfight”at that time:”Martina asked me if I think I am the queen, because she would be the right queen,”said Kournikova, who is said to have thrown a crystal vase on Hingis later on. Reconciliation took place next year. To this day, the two are still friends. In the singles, Kournikova continued to play in the lead, but one title didn’t jump out. The main source of income was not the prize money at tournaments, but highly endowed advertising contracts. In 1999,96 percent of its estimated 20 million US dollars in revenue is said to have come from advertising contracts.
Kournikova was aware of their effect as a sex symbol and exploited it profitably “My breasts are pretty good because they don’t hang out. They are firm and perfect,”she explained. The long braided plait, which always whirled wildly through the area while playing, became her trademark. The male world was obsessed with the Russian.”I have many friends. I want you to write this. In every country I visit, I have a boyfriend and I kiss them all,”she said in a very telling way, explaining the opposite in another statement in 1999:”I am still a virgin. Kournikova played with her inaccessibility:” I am like an expensive menu. You can watch it, but you can’t afford it.”
I hate women’s tennis, but I would even watch her play badminton for two hours,”said Wimbledon winner Richard Krajicek. But it wasn’t their tennis colleagues who did it to Kournikova, but hockey players from their home country. She switched back and forth between NHL pros Pavel Bure and Sergei Fedorov. She is said to have been engaged to Bure, even married to Fedorov. Both were officially but never confirmed. Since 2001 Kournikova has been working with pop singer Enrique Iglesias. The couple got to know each other during the video shoot of Iglesia’s song “Escape”, in which Kournikova played a role. According to media reports, Kournikova is said to have broken up with Iglesia a few months ago because she has waited in vain for a proposal to marry her. Recently, however, it was once again speculated that the couple had found each other again.
But back to sportsmanship: In 2000, Kournikova continued to be a constant on the women’s tour. It went up in small steps. At the end of the season she reached her third final on the WTA tour at her home tournament in Moscow. But once again Martina Hingis was too strong. Nevertheless, she was pleased with a milestone. She moved into the top ten for the first time and finished the year in eighth place. 2001 was finally to be followed by the first title on the WTA tour. The year also began promising for Kournikova. At the Australian Open she reached the quarter-finals. She cemented her place in the top ten. But at her career peak, she was thrown back. Due to a fatigue fracture in her left foot, she had to undergo surgery and failed for five months. Outside the square, Kournikova continued to make big headlines. Be it as an advertising medium for the famous “Only the ball should bounce”campaign, as a model for men’s magazines or in a small role in a film by actor Jim Carrey. Kournikova’s popularity was enormous. In 2000 she was the most wanted sportswoman in internet search engines. The Dutch programmer Jan de Wit was not yet sufficiently well known, as he programmed a computer virus in 2001 that caused a worldwide sensation with a picture of Kournikova,”I am a big fan of her. It deserves some attention,”was the programmer’s succinct explanation.
After her foot injury healed, Kournikova struggled hard to catch up with the world’s best. After finishing the year 2001 as number 74,2002 saw an upward trend. However, it was unable to build on the successes of recent years. With Hingis she won the Australian Open in doubles again at the beginning of the year, but with a WTA title in singles, it should not work. Kournikova had the big chance to win the title in September 2002 at the Shanghai tournament. But her fourth final was also lost to Israeli Anna Smashnova, who was top seeded in Shanghai. Kournikova should not get another chance. Although she finished the year in 35th place, she has already been written off by the press:”It is now over for her as a serious tennis player. She is now a tennis model,”said the ex-player and renowned tennis journalist Gene Scott about the Russian.
New young and good-looking players like the Russian Maria Sharapova stepped into the limelight and were compared to Kournikova:”A copy is never as good as the original,”Kournikova said mockingly about her competitors. The career of the Russian woman was to end in 2003. Her body was on strike and didn’t allow much tennis. On the 9th. April 2003 she played her last match on the WTA tour in Charleston, where she had to give up against Conchita Martinez because of an adductor strain. Two more appearances at ITF tournaments followed. In Sea Island, she could not compete in the eagerly awaited semi-final duel with Sharapova because of another injury to the adductors. Kournikova finally lost her last match as a pro in May 2003 at the ITF tournament in Charlottesville against the unknown Brazilian Bruna Colosio. At that time Kournikova was only 22 years old.
Though Kournikova repeatedly fought at shows in the following years, there was no return to the professional tour. In 2005, she declared that she would return if she was one hundred percent fit, but many little aches and pains, especially on her back, would not allow for professional tennis “If she had only won a Grand Slam tournament, she would have become the most famous athlete in the world,”said ex-pro Charlie Pasarell about the Russian. It’s a statement that seems to be true. Kournikova can look back on a moving career despite her early career end at the age of 21. How often did Kournikova hear the accusation that she was not a good tennis player? But without her athletic success, she would never have managed to become a celebrity and a sought-after advertising object, even off the court. Eighth place in the world rankings, semi-finals in Wimbledon at the age of 16, quarter-finals in the Australian Open, four finals in the WTA Tour, three participations in the WTA Championships, her numerous successes in doubles and two mixed finals in the Grand Slams: all of this contributed to Kournikova becoming interesting for the big business with and around tennis.
If she’d been constantly roaming between 50th and 100th place and regularly dropped out in the first round, her good looks wouldn’t have helped much to build such a great career in the advertising industry. Kournikova is and has never been a bad tennis player, she was the best player who could never win a WTA tournament. However, she has won tournaments – two ITF titles at the age of 15. She might have won another WTA title if she could have continued her career. Kournikova is still a sought-after woman and a household name in pop culture today, whether as a poker name or as a variation on the White Russian cocktail. One thing is certain: Kournikova left traces of dust in tennis instead of dust, made a lasting impression and led people to play tennis who had nothing to do with tennis before.