Love, Sex & New Balls - Anna Kournikova

By Alexander Wildeve

Anna Kournikova feels comfortable on any surface

Russian tennis heart-throb and iconic model Anna Kournikova displayed her perfect understanding of the layman’s view of tennis when she famously quipped “The courts are as a stage, people love to see attractive players.” And she spent her very public career proving this delightful theory, becoming the most sought after entity on internet search engines thanks to her steamy photos and then being voted #1 hottest female athlete in 2002 by ESPN.

Anna Kournikova came to define a dynamic and sensual new era in women’s tennis in the 90s where photo shoots, tabloid sensationalism and mega buck sponsorship became an integral part of the sport. Before the Slavic ace arrived, tennis beauties primarily concerned themselves with mundane topics such as foot faults and forehand topspins. Instead, the Russian beauty upped the ante several notches from skilful modesty to talent with a capital T, paving the way with her magnetic good looks for the likes of sweet dream Maria Sharapova and others.

Like most gifted tennis stars, Anna Kournikova began playing at the early age of five when she received her first tennis racquet. She underwent intensive training at the prestigious Spartak Tennis Club in Moscow, which has produced the likes of Kafelnikov, Sharapova and Marat Safin whose father Mikhail ran the club.

A young Anna Kournikova with Andre Agassi

Before long she’d caught the eye of tennis Godfather Nick Bollettieri, who welcomed her into his elite Florida-based tennis academy at the age of 10. There she honed her aggressive baseline style, quick footwork and tenacity at the net until in 1995 her hard work secured her the Junior U-18 European Champion title.

What followed was a heady journey up the WTA rankings with impressive wins over peers including Steffi Graf, Lindsay Davenport, Martina Hingis, and Monica Seles. Anna Kournikova’s career run in singles began in 1997 when she reached that year’s Wimbledon semi-finals, the quarter finals at the Italian Open, semi-finals of the German Open, and the following year the fourth round in both the French and the U.S.

Open. By 2000 her passionate energy had transformed Anna into a #8 WTA ranking, a career peak for the blond stunner.
But her real skill lay in her ability as a smashing doubles partner. Together with Martina Hingis, Anna Kournikova won two Grand Slam doubles titles at the Australian Open in 1999 and 2002, which won her and Hingis a #1 doubles ranking.

A career high on the tennis courts soon led to a commercial and social summit for the Russian torpedo with features in virtually every top shelf sports, glamour, men’s and women’s magazine posing in a never ending series of breathtaking photo-shoots in bikinis and swimsuits.

Anna Kournikova blew the lid off tennis with a series of revealing photo-shoots

It made guys everywhere do a neck breaking double take, soon to be duplicated on the web. Once word got round that there were racy images of a beautiful tennis star in the offing, spellbound requests pinged back and forth across the net faster than the rain covers at Wimbledon. In 2000, she even advertized Berlei’s advanced sports bras with the slogan ‘only the ball should bounce’.

Injury finally forced Anna Kournikova into retirement in 2003. But this wasn’t a major concern to her large male fanbase who continued to watch her every gorgeous move from exhibition matches and charitable causes to tasty calendars and countless salacious photo-spreads in leading Men’s magazines.