From sports prodigy to TV personal trainer to happy mom of three, Anna Kournikova has transformed right before our eyes. Here's how the retired tennis star went from the cold streets of Moscow to the sunny beaches of Miami.
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00:00From sports prodigy to TV personal trainer to happy mom of three,
00:05Anna Kournikova has transformed right before our eyes. Here's how the retired tennis star
00:10went from the cold streets of Moscow to the sunny beaches of Miami.
00:15Anna Kournikova was born in Moscow in 1981,
00:18so what was it like for Anna to grow up in Russia while it was still the Soviet Union?
00:23According to the tennis star, it was a bit boring, and she found her way to sports largely
00:28because there weren't that many other options. It helped that she had parents who were also
00:32athletes. Her father, Sergei, was a Greco-Roman wrestler, and her mother, Alla, was a runner.
00:39But for Anna Kournikova, her destiny on the tennis court wasn't a conscious decision based
00:44on interests as much as it was an activity that was ingrained in her life from a young age.
00:49Her parents gave her a tennis racket for Christmas in 1986. She told Jimmy Fallon,
00:54Yeah, I didn't really choose it because I started playing tennis when I was five.
00:58I think my parents kind of tried to get rid of me because I was so hyper."
01:02While it wasn't her parents' intention to turn her into a professional when they gave her the
01:07racket, young Kournikova immediately showed serious skills and promptly started attending
01:12a tennis academy at age 7. Kournikova spent several years at the academy until she began
01:18to set her sights on America. Anna Kournikova's tennis skills continued to grow and at 8 years
01:24old, she began competing in tournaments. Her commitment to tennis was so intense at a young
01:29age that it led her parents to uproot their life and move to Bradenton, Florida.
01:34Florida was a very different world than the cold, snowy one Kournikova was used to.
01:39In Bradenton, the future tennis star was coached by famous tennis coach Nick Bolateri.
01:44Bolateri's first thought when he first met the 10-year-old was,
01:47Holy mackerel, he told CNN.
01:49And she was brilliant at the net. She was a genius.
01:52He became her closest mentor for many years. When he wasn't around, her mother stepped in
01:57as her coach. According to Bolateri, her mother was strict and she was rarely allowed to befriend
02:02peers. All of the hard work Anna Kournikova put into tennis as a child began to pay off
02:08as a teenager. When she was 14, she won a match at the Fed Cup, becoming the youngest player to do
02:14so. That same year, she won the Junior Orange Bowl, and at 15, she won the WTA Tour's Most
02:20Impressive Newcomer Award. During her first Wimbledon, at 16 years old, Kournikova made it
02:26to the semifinals before being defeated by another 16-year-old, Martina Hingis.
02:31The following year, Kournikova came as close as she ever would to winning a tournament when
02:36she played a championship match against Venus Williams at the Lipton Final. She was playing
02:41well in the first set, but then Williams quickly took the lead and won. Unfortunately, 1997 and
02:471998 would be the best Anna Kournikova would ever be in singles, never quite living up to
02:52her prophesied potential. In the early 2000s, Anna Kournikova's fame extended beyond the sports world
02:59and into full-blown celebritydom. We're talking as famous as Britney Spears, and definitely just
03:04as Googled. In 2001, she became one of the most Googled women in the world alongside Spears,
03:10Madonna, and Jennifer Lopez. What's more, she was the most searched athlete. At the height of her
03:15career, Kournikova graced the cover of magazines and was listed as one of People's 50 Most
03:20Beautiful People, was included in FHM's Sexiest Women list several times, and was crowned the
03:27hottest female athlete by ESPN. But unsurprisingly, all the focus on her looks frequently drifted into
03:33sexist waters. In fact, some of the headlines were beyond cringeworthy. Kournikova had mixed
03:38feelings about the media's portrayal of her. She admitted to the Mirror in a 2000 interview,
03:43It's nice to have some of the attention I have, but I want to be known first and foremost as a
03:48great tennis player." Considering her popularity, it's no surprise that Anna Kournikova was showered
03:54in endorsement deals. She pretty much set the standard for women in tennis to be paid the big
03:59bucks off the court. By 2002, she was reportedly making $10 million in endorsements, according to
04:05CNN. That same year, she didn't make it past the first round of Wimbledon. But the fact that she
04:11wasn't winning left and right had little effect on her status as a successful spokesmodel.
04:15Many critics have argued that her advertising priorities affected her game. Kournikova,
04:20on the other hand, feels like she was just doing what felt right at the time. She said in Sports
04:25Illustrated, It's hard. We did the best we could. But there was no blueprint. I took the money.
04:30It's simple. If you don't want the attention, don't take the money.
04:34Anna Kournikova met her longtime partner, Enrique Iglesias,
04:38on the set of his music video in 2001. She played the pop singer's love interest in the
04:43visual accompaniment for his song, Escape. As it turns out, there wasn't much acting involved.
04:48Iglesias said in MTV's Making of the Video,
04:51She's beautiful, talented, great tennis player. It doesn't take a good actor to
04:56try to kiss Anna and make it believable.
04:58They hit it off, and over two decades and three kids later, they're still going strong.
05:02As for marriage? As far as we know, they have yet to walk down the aisle.
05:06In a 2008 interview, Kournikova told People, quote,
05:10"...I'm never getting married."
05:11And it seemed like Iglesias shared a similar view on the idea of matrimony.
05:15Iglesias told Parade in 2012,
05:19I've never really thought marriage would make a difference. Maybe it's because I come from
05:22divorced parents, but I don't think you love someone more because of a piece of paper.
05:27Kournikova, however, calls herself Anna Kournikova Iglesias in her Instagram bio,
05:33so it's possible they finally made it official at some point. Again,
05:36the pair is so good at keeping their private lives private that it's hard to say for sure.
05:41While most people have barely begun to figure out their career at 21,
05:45Anna Kournikova was reaching the end of hers. Though rumors were swirling at the time that
05:50she was giving up tennis to pursue acting, the truth was that the intense training she
05:54had gone through during her entire childhood and adolescence was starting to take its toll
05:59on her body. She told People,
06:01My back really forced me to stop. It got so bad. I couldn't tie my shoes literally. I would be in
06:07excruciating pain. I had been doing six to eight hours of training every day since I was five years
06:12old. Despite others' hyper-focus on the fact that she never won a singles title, she doesn't measure
06:18her success by that same standard and is happy with the trajectory of her career, though it ended
06:23sooner than she had originally hoped. Kournikova said in an interview with People,
06:28I know that I did my best. I am very proud of what I have achieved.
06:32After retiring from professional tennis, Anna Kournikova was feeling a bit lost.
06:37She told People,
06:39It was very interesting to me to stop playing and to figure out
06:42who am I without tennis. It was very difficult and scary as hell.
06:46Eventually, she found a sense of powerful purpose, participating in charity work.
06:51Kournikova started working with the Boys & Girls Club in 2004, traveling around America with the
06:56intent of educating kids about the importance of staying active. She believes encouraging
07:01athletic activities in schools and youth programs is one of the best messages to spread.
07:06Kournikova told Jimmy Fallon,
07:08Sports can teach kids so many things like leadership and teamwork and achieving goals.
07:13I just think it's really important.
07:15As she wrote in a piece for Oprah.com,
07:17Kournikova has made mission trips with Population Services International.
07:21The tennis star made one trip to Haiti to help provide basic health services
07:25and another trip to her homeland of Russia to help educate youth about the risks of HIV.
07:31For years, she has also worked with the United Service Organizations,
07:35a nonprofit that provides services to members of the American military
07:39as well as the individuals and families that live on bases abroad.
07:43Similar to her work with the Boys & Girls Club, Kournikova traveled to various bases to help
07:48educate children on the importance of physical activity. She wrote on the USO's official website,
07:54It wasn't until my involvement with the USO that I truly understood the
07:57meanings of sacrifice, teamwork, and dedication.
08:01Anna Kournikova's charity work with the United Services Organizations
08:05eventually led her to officially become an American citizen. Having spent most of her
08:10life in the States, she already felt like she was an American long before the government
08:14recognized her as one. She told Maxim,
08:17I've always considered myself half Russian and half American. It never seemed to really matter
08:22if I had a passport or not. But when I started working with the United Services Organizations
08:27and the troops overseas, it just seemed the logical next step.
08:31During her time working with the USO, she feels she witnessed all the positive attributes of
08:36America. Kournikova was consistently impressed with the families she met on America's military
08:41bases abroad and was moved by the sacrifices they were making on a daily basis for their country.
08:47In a piece for the USO's official website, Kournikova wrote,
08:50I can truly say I am proud to be an American.
08:54While it was always going to be difficult for Anna Kournikova to totally separate her name
08:58from tennis, she did try for a while. After retiring, she experimented with several different
09:03potential callings. She told People in a 2011 interview,
09:08I did everything from therapy to 10-hour walks on the beach to discover and think and try new things.
09:14As previously noted, she settled on youth-focused volunteer work for a while.
09:19Eventually, she also began working towards a new career. In 2011,
09:23she landed a gig as a trainer on the NBC reality competition series The Biggest Loser.
09:28Being a professional athlete my whole life, I've learned everything there is to know about
09:33commitment, strength, discipline, and sacrifice.
09:37But it wasn't just a television gimmick. Kournikova had actually been studying
09:42professional training and received a fitness certification
09:45from the International Sports Sciences Association, according to People. She told the outlet,
09:51I am not doing this just to be on TV, at all. I am able to help and influence people's health
09:56and well-being. That is an amazing feeling. Despite her enthusiasm for her new career,
10:01she left the series after only one season.
10:05In recent years, Anna Kournikova has led a relatively quiet and private life with her
10:10longtime partner Enrique Iglesias. While she doesn't post very often on Instagram,
10:15her feed displays photos of her three children, dogs, and their sun-filled life in Miami, Florida.
10:20Kournikova and Iglesias welcomed to their first children, a set of twins, in 2017,
10:26one boy and one girl named Nicholas and Lucy. They managed to keep the pregnancy completely
10:31secret until after the birth. The couple was much more open about the pregnancy and birth
10:36of their third child, born in 2020. Kournikova even shared a photo with her newborn from the
10:41delivery room on her Instagram. Iglesias told People that their new daughter's name was Mary,
10:47or Masha in Russian, and that their other two children were happy with the newborn.
10:51Iglesias told the outlet,
10:54They actually love it. There's a two-year difference, so I was a little scared.
10:58And I have two dogs, so my house is chaotic.
11:01Iglesias also reportedly told the Russian press that their household was trilingual.
11:05And that they were raising their kids to understand Russian and Spanish in addition to English.
11:10Kournikova posted a video on her Instagram of her and her daughter having a chat in Russian.
11:15All in all, the former tennis star has distanced herself from her celebrity past,
11:19and seems content with a low-key life in Miami with her family.