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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 for Christmas. She
played in a club near her place until age 11. After, 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 IT 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
that 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. |
(
Nov 2, 2006 )
