Anna Kournikova: From tennis 'It Girl' to a life of privacy

At one point, it felt like Anna Kournikova was everywhere, but since her retirement, she has successfully managed to keep her life private. Although she may enjoy a quieter lifestyle now, the 43-year-old star still has a lot going on! Let's look a quick look back at her career and see what she's up to now.

Just to refresh your memory: Anna Kournikova was a precocious talent in Moscow who immigrated to the United States when she was still a child.

At age ten, she began training with Nick Bollettieri, who had already worked with champions like Monica Seles, Andre Agassi and Anna's compatriot Maria Sharapova.

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At the age of 15, Kournikova reached the fourth round of the 1996 US Open. A year later, she would make it to the Wimbledon semi-finals. And at age 17, the Russian tennis star had climbed to the top 10 of the WTA rankings.

A photogenic and charismatic teenager, Kournikova attracted a certain frivolous press and began to appear in fashion magazines.

At one point in her career, she had more magazine covers (Sports Illustrated, Vogue, FHM and Maxim, for example) than Grand Slam titles.

As the opportunities came in, Kournikova found herself spending more time on photo shoots for designer brands, than she did on the tennis court – something critics at the time attributed to her gradual decline in the game.

Kournikova reached her best results in doubles. She won two Australian Open (1999 and 2002) and two WTA Tour Championships (1999 and 2000), together with Martina Hingis.

While an acclaimed doubles star, Kournikova was renowned for getting 'the yips' in singles matches. As many thought she crumbled under pressure in the big singles matches, there is a belief – from Stephen Kelly at Bleacher Report, to name just one – that she didn't quite live up to her amazing potential,

Due to a serious spinal injury and ongoing back issues, Kournikova was forced to retire from the professional circuit in 2003, at the age of 21 – a time when most tennis players are just hitting their prime!

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While she withdrew from the rigours of the WTA schedule, she did continue to play sporadic exhibition matches until 2007, when she fully retired from the court. It's ok, though, as the now 26-year-old wasn't short on jobs!

Over the course of her career, Kournikova had constantly been on magazine covers and become the face of brands like Adidas and Omega, according to The Guardian.

In fact, Anna Kournikova led the female tennis players when it came to sponsor contracts and earnings in advertising.

At the time of her retirement, the tennis player had been in a relationship with the Spanish singer Enrique Iglesias for six years. The couple had met during the filming of Iglesias' video clip 'Escape', as told by CNN.

As opposed to her tennis career, where she'd been overexposed to the media, her relationship with Enrique Iglesias developed in near-secrecy.

Once she retired, the highly-publicized tennis star went into complete seclusion.

Kournikova became the most searched athlete on Google. Apart from one guest appearance in 'Friends', the tennis star and fashion icon almost completely disappeared from the media.

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Enrique Iglesias and Anna Kournikova would have three children together. Nicholas and Lucy were born in 2017, and Mary arrived on January 30, 2020, as reported by ESPN

The level of privacy achieved by the couple is so great that, after more than 20 years of their relationship, nobody knows for sure if they are married or not, though there has been speculation. Enrique told Blesk in 2012: "We haven't gotten married in public, that doesn't mean we are not married. We have been together for such a long time, for half of our lives."

What we do know is that the Iglesias-Kournikova family lives in a spectacular mansion with a private bay in an exclusive residential area of Miami, Florida.

The Russian star is somewhat active on social media, however, and offers a little glimpse into what life is like in the Iglesias-Kournikova household.

Her posts also show that she loves dogs. Like her beloved Max, pictured here.

Image credit: Instagram @annakournikova

Kournikova also continues to be active in sports, both by herself and with her children or Enrique Iglesias.

At the same time, and despite being retired for more than 14 years, Kournikova is an ambassador of the sportswear brand K-Swiss and the 'Five & Alive' foundation.

The foundation addresses health issues of children younger than five years.

Regardless of her achievements as a tennis player, Kournikova's legacy can be measured at the sports marketing level.

The impact of Anna Kournikova was so great that a cocktail was named after her (a White Russian with skimmed milk instead of cream). There was also a video game, a computer virus, and a winning hand of poker (the Ace-King hand) named after the Russian tennis player.

In fact, it's fair to say that Kournikova was a huge player in changing the role of athletes into brands – something we see modern examples of with David Beckham, Cristiano Ronaldo, Serena Williams, and Naomi Osaka.

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