I don't know how many times I have heard sportscasters use Anna Kournikova as an analogy for an athlete who gets attention for their appearance instead of their athletic accomplishments. It has become a sports cliché to say that so and so is the "Anna Kournikova of swimming" or the "Anna Kournikova of golf". Critics would say that Kournikova should spend more time on the court and less time in front of a camera. ESPN seems intent on perpetuating this image of Kournikova, including her on a list of the "25 Biggest Sports Flops of the Past 25 Years" and naming her number 1 on a list of sport's most overrated athletes. Sportscasters like to point out that Kournikova never won an WTA tournament.
The truth is that, considering the image that has been created of her being all style and no substance, Anna Kournikova is one of the most underrated athletes of all time. The truth is that she won sixteen WTA tournament titles, they just happened to all be in doubles. It is amazing to me that with all the attention given athletes in teams sports that sportscasters seem to totally disregard Kournikova's accomplishments in the team sport of doubles tennis, especially considering the importance of each athlete in a team of two. Kournikova was a doubles specialist that won sixteen WTA tournaments with six different partners, including two Grand Slam tournaments. Kournikova was also a finalist in fourteen additional WTA tournaments as a doubles player, including three Grand Slam tournaments. Kournikova attained the WTA #1 ranking in doubles at the height of her career. How often do you hear sportscasters mention that Kournikova reached the highest ranking in her sport?
Kournikova was also an excellent singles tennis player, and was ranked as high as #8 by the WTA. Kournikova never quite broke into the top handful of players of her time, which is why she never won a WTA singles tournament, although she was a singles finalist four times. Considering her contemporaries included Steffi Graf, Monica Seles, Martina Hingis, Arantxa Sánchez Vicario, Lindsay Davenport, Venus Williams, and Serena Williams, it is understandable that she never won a WTA singles tournament despite being an excellent player.
Anna Kournikova may be a great model, but I don't understand why many sportscasters don't realize that she is a great tennis player as well.
