ANNA KOURNIKOVA REACHES 10-YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF RETIREMENT IN MAY

Anna Kournikova was forced to retire from her professional tennis career in May 2007 at the age of 25 after serious spinal and back problems, including a herniated disk made it impossible for her to continue playing.

2007 till 2017 makes it 1o years since she retired from the sport, May to be precise. Yet it seems like just yesterday that she was finding it hard to win singles titles yet still capturing the imagination of the tennis world due to her beauty.

Unfortunately, since 2004, the Russian has not played in the WTA and even though she is widely celebrated in the tennis world, she never won a singles title. The closest she came to winning one was in 1997 when she reached the Wimbledon Semifinals.

Since the days of Kournikova, women’s tennis has been reduced to a race to be Vanna White with a racket. In recent times, a female tennis player’s worth is now tied to how many products she can push and no longer how well she can play. Read more »

WILLIAMS BEATS SHARAPOVA

Serena Williams has defeated Maria Sharapova of Russia in the final of Mutua Madrid Open. Serena won the match in the straight sets by 6-1, 6-4. This was Serena’s 12^th consecutive win against Sharapova.

Serena had come into this match under a bit of pressure. Had she lost this match, she would have been replaced by Sharapova as world no. 1. But, the American superstar didn’t let the pressure get better of her. She showed fantastic composure and outplayed her Russian opponent.

This is the 50^th WTA title won by Serena in her career.

In the post match interview, Sharapova said, “It’s always disappointing to lose in the finals. I was pretty slow in the first set. I served quite a few double faults and you can’t afford to do that against a player like Serena.”

“In the second set, I got the early breakthrough, but, I couldn’t capitalize. To be honest, my performance was pretty mediocre today.”

Serena was off to a flying start in the match. She broke Sharapova’s serve in the second and the fourth game of the first set and managed to get ahead by 5-0.

Sharapova held her serve in the 6^th game, but, that was not going to help. The Russian player required at least a couple of more breakthroughs to turn things around, but, she couldn’t do that. Serena served out the 7^th game and won the opening set by 6-1.

In the second set, Sharapova had a great start. She got a breakthrough in the very first game and then, with a serve hold in the next game, she took a lead of 2-0. The next three games went with the serve and at the end of the 5^th game; Sharapova was leading by 3-2.

But, after that, Sharapova suddenly lost her rhythm. She dropped her serve twice in the next five games and lost the second set by 4-6.

Venus Williams vs Anna Kournikova 1998 Lipton Highlights

Kournikova Online video Rating: 5 / 5[/random]