Anna Kournikova

I have to say that judging by the photo at right, retirement from tennis agrees with Anna Kournikova. She looks better now than she did when she was playing and she was the best thing on the court then. She's not completely retired in that she does play some charity events but she doesn't play on the WTA tour anymore. I think that's too bad. Yes, she was very nice to look at but she was also a good tennis player. She was, and still is, excoriated in the press because she never won a singles title. Perhaps some of it was deserved because she got a lot of attention when she played. But is that her fault? She's pretty. Gee, I guess she's the first pretty woman to ever get on magazine covers because of her appearance.

I watch tennis when it's on, mainly the women's circuit. I've been watching tennis for a long time now. I like to play as well but I don't get to do it very often because I don't know anyone who plays. I'm no expert but I think a bit about the sport and I think Anna got a raw deal. Because she is so attractive, she got a lot of attention and made a lot of money. But it also put a lot of pressure on her because people felt she didn't really "earn" the money. The longer she went without winning a singles title, the more she became a joke in many people's eyes. She won doubles titles with Martina Hingis but that didn't matter. In singles, she was for a time a top ten player. Most people in the world have never been top ten in anything. You have to have some kind of talent to be that highly ranked in an individual sport like tennis.

The point is that I miss Anna on the court. Yes, she was, and still is, very nice to look at. Buy I really enjoyed watching her play. For the same reasons, I miss Martina Hingis and Steffi Graf and Monica Seles. With Justine Henin just announcing her retirement, there aren't that many women on the tour I look forward to watching. Sharapova is my current favorite though people also assume it's because of how she looks. Truth is that she is like an assassin on the tennis court and I love to watch that. Aside from her, there are a few up and comers to watch but overall the game doesn't seem to have too many captivating personalities and I miss that. We need to Americans in tennis to cheer for or at least someone with some personality. Otherwise I'll be forced to simply keep up on the lastest news on Anna and her tool of a boyfriend, Enrique Iglesias.