Anna Kournikova — tennis with roots in the USSR
Anna Sergeyevna Kournikova was born in Moscow on 7 June 1981, the only child of Sergei Kournikov, a wrestler, and Alla Kournikova. She began playing tennis at five, after her father bought her a racket, in a children's sports programme in Moscow, and at seven was accepted as a junior member of the city's Spartak club.
In 1992, at ten, she left Russia to train at Nick Bollettieri's tennis academy in Bradenton, Florida, where she trained until 1997. She made her debut on the WTA Tour at the Moscow Ladies Open in September 1995 at fourteen, and in 1996, at fifteen, reached the fourth round of the US Open in her first Grand Slam singles tournament, losing to Steffi Graf. That summer she played doubles for Russia at the Olympic Games in Atlanta.
In 1997, at sixteen, she reached the semi-finals at Wimbledon in her first appearance there, her best Grand Slam result in singles. In 1998 she reached the singles final of the Lipton Championships in Key Biscayne. Her year-end singles ranking rose from 57th in 1996 to 32nd, 13th and 12th and then to 8th in 2000, her career high, reached in November of that year, although she never won a singles title on the tour; in 2001 she reached the quarter-finals of the Australian Open. Her greatest success came in doubles: partnering Martina Hingis, she won the Australian Open in 1999 and 2002 and the season-ending WTA championships in 1999 and 2000, and reached the 1999 French Open final; in November 1999 she became the world No. 1 in doubles. In all she won sixteen doubles titles.
An ankle injury in 2000, a foot injury in 2001 and then recurring back problems, including a herniated disc, interrupted her career, and she played her last tour matches in 2003, at twenty-one. Afterwards she took part in exhibition and charity events, including matches with Hingis, appeared in the film Me, Myself & Irene, and in 2011 joined the American television programme The Biggest Loser as a trainer. Later Russian champions, among them Svetlana Kuznetsova, have described her as a trailblazer for women's tennis in Russia.
"Left Moscow at ten, in 1992, to train at Nick Bollettieri's tennis academy in Bradenton, Florida."
Migration storyTracing the roots — Moscow (Russia)
Born in Moscow in 1981, the only child of Sergei Kournikov, a wrestler, and Alla Kournikova, she began playing at five and became a junior member of the Spartak club at seven before leaving for Florida at ten.
Moscow (Russia). At the time, this region was one of the fifteen republics of the Soviet Union.