Early life

Anna was born in Moscow, Soviet Union, on June 7, 1981. Her father, Sergei Kournikov, was 20 at the time Sergei, a former Greco-Roman wrestling champion, had earned a Ph.D. and was a professor on the College of Bodily Culture and Sport in Moscow. As of 2001, he was nonetheless a component-time martial arts teacher there. Her mom Alla, who was 18 when Anna was born, had been a 400-meter runner.[
Sergei said: "We had been young and we appreciated the clean, bodily life, so Anna was in a very good atmosphere for sport from the beginning." The household identify is spelled in Russian with out an "o", so a direct transliteration would be "Kurnikov", and it's generally written that way. However it's pronounced "Kournikov", so the household selected that as their English spelling.

Anna acquired her first tennis racquet as a New Yr reward in 1986 at age 5 Anna says: "I performed two occasions per week from age five. It was a children's program. And it was only for fun; my mother and father didn't know I was going to play professionally, they simply wished me to do something because I had a lot of energy. It was solely once I began enjoying nicely at seven that I went to knowledgeable academy. I'd go to school, after which my dad and mom would take me to the membership, and I'd spend the remainder of the day there just having enjoyable with the kids." In 1986, Anna became a member of the prestigious Spartak Tennis Club, coached by Larissa Preobrazhenskaya In 1989, at the age of eight, Anna began showing in junior tournaments, and by the next yr, was attracting attention from tennis scouts throughout the world. Anna signed a administration deal at age ten and went to Bradenton, Florida to coach at Nick Bollettieri's celebrated tennis academy.

 

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Anna Kounikova