a top 10 world ranking international
fame and retiring with millions of
dollars would you believe all this
happened to anna kournikova by her early
20s stay tuned to see her stunning
transformation
anna kournikova was born on june 7 1981
in the then soviet union to parents
sergey and allah both of whom were
athletes she picked up her first tennis
racket at only five years old and
immediately took to the game a few years
later she began training seriously at
the spartak tennis academy just outside
of moscow with legendary coach larissa
prabhashensky she continued to show so
much promise and love for the game that
she made the life-changing decision to
relocate to bradenton florida so that
she could train with legendary tennis
coach nick boleteri at his tennis
academy voluteri was an incredibly
famous and sought after coach who had
already coached champion tennis players
andre agassi and monica ellis even
though kournikova was only 10 she loved
the game and took to working with
boletari immediately he told cnn that he
remembered his first time meeting
kournikova saying this little girl comes
and jumps in my ball basket and says i'm
here for the lesson i thought who the
hell is this it was unbelievable to see
the spunk of a little girl just coming
and saying i'm here i'm ready
nick boleteri's coaching style clearly
struck a chord with young anna just a
few years after joining his academy she
won the 1995 italian junior open it was
her first tournament victory and she
continued to build on that success the
rest of the year in june she advanced to
the quarterfinals of the international
junior championships of france and in
july she made it to the semifinals of
the wimbledon junior championship she
was winning
junior international titles so she was
the real deal
in december kournikova won her second
tournament of the year the orange bowl
international championship in which she
had been runner-up the year before
because of all of her success that year
she was named the 1995 itf junior world
champion kournikova was only 14 and more
tennis success was right around the
corner
the success anna kournikova found on the
junior circuit wasn't the only exciting
thing to happen to her in 1995.
kornikova made her professional debut
with the women's tennis association
playing in her native russia at the
moscow ladies open even though she lost
in the second round it was an impressive
debut especially considering she was
only 14 years old at the time she had
more success in the doubles competition
of the moscow ladies open kornikova
partnered with polish tennis player
alexandra ulsa making it to the finals
before ultimately losing this
competition foreshadowed kornikova's
later success as a doubles tennis player
anna kournikova made her grand slam
debut at the 1996 u.s open and after
winning her first match she told the new
york times it's already a good
tournament for me i qualified and then i
won my first match so i think that's
great kournikova won her second and
third round matchups before ultimately
losing in two sets to first seed steffi
graff still making it as far as she did
was an incredible grand slam debut for
the 15 year old player graff was at the
top of the women's tennis world at the
time and went on to win the tournament
just months later kournikova represented
the russian federation in the 1996
summer olympic games in atlanta at only
15 years old she was the youngest tennis
player participating in the olympics
that year she lost in her first match
but participating in the olympics as a
teenager is an incredible feat no matter
the result in april kornikova played for
russia in the fed cup and helped russia
beat sweden in the first round her
overall performance in 1996 led her to
win the title of wta newcomer of the
year
during her first time ever playing at
wimbledon in 1997 anna kournikova
entered the tournament unseated but
still advanced all the way to the
semifinals the only other woman to do
that at that point was chris evert in
1972 kournikova eventually lost in the
semi-final to first seed martina hingis
even after the loss kournikova had a
sunny perspective on her experience
playing in the tournament telling the
independent i'm sure i'll learn
something from this match i've had a
great tournament i'm really happy the
way i played it's unbelievable i got to
the semifinals i was dreaming about this
hingis and kournikova were both 16 at
the time and it seemed clear that these
two teenagers were the future of women's
tennis hingis acknowledged the budding
rivalry with kornikova telling the
independent after the game when we posed
for the photographers after the toss i
said to kornikova this is not the first
time and i'm sure there are going to be
many more times everyone is making a big
rivalry of it
at the 1999 australian open anna
kournikova and martina hingis turned
their supposed rivalry on its head when
they partnered up for the women's
doubles division of the tournament it
couldn't have gone better they won the
whole thing giving kournikova her first
ever grand slam victory hinkis started
calling the pair the spice girls of
tennis and the australian open was the
beginning of a long and successful
doubles partnership in 1999 they went on
to win doubles tournaments at indian
wells rome and eastbourne as well as the
wta award for doubles team of the year
they won the australian open again in
2002 which would be kornikova's final
career victory at a grand slam
in one of her first major modeling
contracts burley sports bras hired anna
kournikova to be the face of their shock
absorber sports bras the company used
kornikova's image to promote the bras on
everything from packaging to 20-foot
billboards the washington post estimated
that her deals with burley and adidas
brought her six million dollars in
income in 2000. as her fame grew
kornikova signed more and more
endorsement deals with her modeling and
advertising income quickly outstripping
her tennis earnings a few years later in
2002 cnn money estimated she made 10
million dollars a year as she began to
advertise for omega adidas and k-swiss
kronikova's net worth is an estimated 50
million dollars with a large bulk of
that money coming from endorsement deals
while kornikova caught a lot of flack in
the press for doing so much advertising
and modeling work she may have been
feeling extra pressure to financially
provide for her family because of me my
whole family moved to a different
continent
and so i was supporting everybody
basically
anna kournikova had battled back pain
stress fractures and other injuries for
many years and they all caught up with
her in 2003 she played in the australian
open and won her first round game but
aggravated her back that injury forced
her to withdraw from several tournaments
that year according to wta the last
tournament she played in was in
charlottesville in may 2003 and she
pulled out of tournaments in england in
june ending her tennis career i was just
unfortunate to get injured a lot of
times and i never quite you know
went all the way
many considered it a disappointing
finish to a promising start as kornikova
never won a singles tournament but
there's no doubt that kornikova's
success inspired a whole generation of
younger players especially young russian
women russian player and two-time grand
slam winner zvetlana kuznetsova told the
wta in a 2017 interview i always defend
her when they say oh she never won a
tournament so what she was a top 10
player it's not just about winning
tournaments she was a great image for
the game not only for russia but for
tennis all over the world kuznetsova was
part of a group of russian women who
began achieving great success in tennis
in the years after kournikova retired
including elena dementieva and maria
sharapova
even though kournikova retired from
playing tennis professionally that
didn't end her love of the game she's
continued to play the sport for
different good causes in 2008 she
participated in the advanta world team
tennis smash hit celebrity tennis
tournament which raised money for elton
john's aids foundation and the atlanta
aids partnership fund kornikova has also
volunteered with hiv aids patients in
other parts of the world in 2009 she
took a trip to her native russia to work
with young hiv and aids patients there
she wrote passionately about the
experience for oprah.com elaborating our
goal here is to reach young people
before they begin using drugs to educate
them to give them the tools they need to
make healthy choices i hope that i can
make a difference in these kids lives
and that my voice will be heard
kornikova made the trip to russia with
population services international and
has continued to work and travel with
the organization as a global ambassador
kournikova's volunteer work put her on
the path to american citizenship she
started volunteering with the uso in
2008 taking a trip to guam to visit the
families of servicemen and women
stationed there as with her other
volunteer work with psi her focus at the
uso has been working with children after
guam she also traveled to germany and
turkey kournikova reflected about her
volunteer work writing for the uso's
website on each trip i have taken with
the uso i have been so inspired by how
positive everybody is despite the
reality of their jobs during these
uncertain times everybody is working
together toward a common goal and with
extreme care and dedication in
everything they do kronakova became a
u.s citizen in 2010 and her time with
the uso is a large part of the reason
why as reported by yahoo sports she said
you know i've always considered myself
half russian and half american it never
seemed to really matter if i had a
passport or not but when i started
working with the uso and the troops
overseas it just seemed the logical next
step
in 2001 anna kournikova agreed to play
the love interest in the music video for
enrique iglesias's song escape the pair
didn't know each other before filming
the video where they share some steamy
make-out scenes but their on-screen
chemistry translated into real life
according to people they started dating
after filming the music video and
they've been together ever since the
couple has kept their personal life
quite private to the point that it's
unclear whether they are actually
married kournikova wears wedding and
engagement rings and instagram pictures
where she lives her name is anna
kournikova iglesias however in 2008 she
told people magazine that she planned on
never getting married and iglesias
echoed that sentiment in an interview
with parade in 2012. the singer said
i've never really thought marriage would
make a difference maybe it's because i
come from divorced parents but i don't
think you love someone more because of a
piece of paper and nowadays it's not
taboo to have kids and not be married
regardless of their marital status the
couple seems to be dedicated to each
other and supportive of each other's
careers
for me i'm just really proud and happy
that he's doing well and uh you know i
hear he's got a great new album out
kournikova and iglesias have three
children together in december 2017 she
gave birth to their twins nicholas and
lucy kournikova managed to keep her
pregnancy a secret so it was a total
surprise when the couple posted pictures
of their newborns on their instagram
accounts in january 2018. in january
2020 their youngest daughter mary joined
the family again kournikova and iglesias
didn't let the press know they were
expecting so it was another surprise
when she posted a picture of baby mary
on her instagram iglesias described to
people how happy nicholas and lucy were
to have a little sister saying they
actually love it the transition went
very smoothly the kornikova iglesias
family lives in miami where they keep a
low profile
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