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Williams Whisks Past Kournikova by Sandra Harwitt Courtesy of Wimbledon.org When most players declare themselves pro the event normally goes unnoticed. But in 1995 when Anna Kournikova turned pro, it was a highly anticipated event waiting to happen. The now 18-year-old Kournikova was a familiar name at a time when her age was recorded in single digits -- the Russian who grew up in Florida, was going to be a star for a combination of reasons, foremost being she could play unbelievable tennis and was emerging as a teen beauty. Four years later, the No. 17 ranked Kournikova's has shown some promise on the tour -- and her following is still dictated by her looks -- but there's been no real greatness achieved, at least yet. In contrast to fellow 18-year-old Martina Hingis, who is going through a rough patch now, but is the No. 1 player in the world and an owner of five Grand Slam trophies, Kournikova's trophy shelf remains unadorned. And the shelf will continue to be bare of winner's trophies at least for this Wimbledon. Fellow teen Venus Williams packed Kournikova off empty-handed with a 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 fourth round victory. The victory wasn't too surprising since Williams, definitely the more accomplished player at this point, had won their two previous encounters. "I'm working my hardest to get to the top spot," said Williams, who reached the 1997 U.S. Open final. "I'm trying to get there and I'm doing better. "If I didn't feel that way (able to get to No. 1), I would not continue to play, most certainly." Williams received one major endorsement on her talent Wednesday by a former No. 1 champion Boris Becker, who enthusiastically said of the American, "Future No. 1 -- there's no doubt about it." Thus far, Kournikova's best career results is two final appearances -- the 1998 Lipton Championships (losing to Venus Williams) and the 1999 Hilton Head. In her first and only previous Wimbledon visit, Kournikova made it all the way to the semi-finals in 1997, an accomplishment only Chris Evert in 1972 had done before. Like Kournikova, the 19-year-old Williams arrived on the tour at about the same time as the Russian star, and with about as much fanfare. But Williams's talent has come to fruition -- there's seven career titles with four coming this year. After two days of rain playing havoc with the Wimbledon schedule, Williams started the match slowly, providing Kournikova with a false sense of security. Kournikova had a decidedly non-feminist view to why her game unraveled after the first set. "I think that this is a ladies' sport and women tend to get nervous, or something, more than the men," said Kournikova. "Men just play, so probably women's tennis is a lot about mental toughness." When Williams buckled down and took control of the second set by breaking serve in the fourth game, Kournikova was, once again, out of contention for a first career title. In the final set, Williams demolished Kournikova, losing only four points on her own four service games. By 4-1, 40-30 for Williams, the Russian was slamming her racket to the ground in frustration. A high whipping backhand volley snap ended the match and put Williams into a second consecutive quarter-final showing at Wimbledon where she will meet up with No. 2 seed Steffi Graf. "I have to try to get to the semis -- I never been before," said Williams. "She (Graf) has had seven wins, so I've got to try to take something for myself this time." While Kournikova's tennis hasn't produced any major career successes for the Russian, her personal life is always a hot subject around the tour. Kournikova, who often greets the press with a little attitude, has been sporting a large diamond ring on her engagement finger, but says it isn't an engagement ring. No matter what it is, Kournikova's long time boyfriend, Detroit Red Wings hockey star Sergei Federov, is here at Wimbledon. |