|
Anna Kournikova first caught the eye of Tennis scouts as a young girl
back home in Moscow and by the age of 11 she had moved to Bradenton,
Florida to join the world reknowned Nick Bolletierri tennis academy. Her
talent continued to flourish and at 14 years of age she became the
youngest player ever to win a Federal Cup match. By the end of 1995 she
headed the junior rankings and had been crowned as ITF Junior World
Champion.
The time had come for Anna to join the professional circuit
and amid much hype the beautiful young Russian reached the 4th round of
her first Grand Slam tournament, the 1996 U.S. Open. Kournikova defeated
Ludmila Richterova in the first round and then saw off Natalia
Baudone-Furlan and Barbara Paulus before going down 6-2, 6-1 to eventual
champion Steffi Graf. The following year saw Anna put in her best
performance to date in a Grand Slam event when reaching the semi-finals
of Wimbledon (she is pictured above during that 1997 tournament).
In doing so she became only the second women, Chris Evert being the
other in 1972, to reach the semi-final stage on her debut. En-route to
the semi-finals Kournikova had upset 10th seed Anke Huber in the first
round and 5th seed Iva Majoli in the quarter-finals before being beaten
by her future doubles partner Martina Hingis in straight sets.
|