Former tennis star Anna Kournikova is back in the spotlight after the Russian ace made a rare public appearance in Florida. The year-old was spotted in a wheelchair and an orthopaedic boot while out in Miami β the first time she has been seen in public since Amid renewed interest in the former teen sensation, we look back at her short-lived career and her post-retirement life.
Kournikova remains one of the most famous tennis players of recent decades, though her career lasted less than a decade, retiring from the sport in aged only The Russian was just 15 when she made her Grand Slam debut at the US Open in , famously reaching the Wimbledon semi-final as a year-old in She would also reach the Australian Open quarter-final in and peaked at world No 8 in singles, though lost all four of her WTA singles finals. Alongside the Swiss, she won the Australian Open in and and was the Roland Garros runner-up in , and she would spend 10 weeks as the doubles world No 1.
Kournikova won 16 titles in doubles but her career started tailing off in , missing three of the four majors that season due to a left foot stress fracture β dropping down to 74th in the singles rankings. She made it back inside the top 40 in but continued to be plagued by a back issue and an abductor injury, and ultimately played her final career match at a 25K event in Charlottesville in May Though it is believed the two have never got married, the relationship between the tennis star and the pop icon is still going strong almost two and a half decades later.
Kournikova and Iglesias welcomed fraternal twins, Nicholas and Lucy, in December before a second daughter, Mary, was born in January In the years after her retirement, Kournikova remained a high-profile figure in the world of tennis.
She appeared at a string of exhibitions across the mids, appearing with the likes of John McEnroe, Chris Evert, and Martina Navratilova at a range of events. Kournikova also famously reunited with Hingis to play the invitational doubles event at Wimbledon in , winning two of their three matches in the exhibition event.
