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"World Tennis"-Interview with Harry Cicma

June 2009



Anna Kournikova, a marquee player for the St.Louis Aces, another great year of World Team Tennis. Your Excitement to get out there?
Anna: "Oh my god. I'm so looking forward to it. It's my second year with the Aces and it's my seventh year playing World Team Tennis so I'm really looking forward to it again. And this year I'm playing six matches so it's gonna be a lot of fun, a lot of travelling but a lot of fun."

..you're coming back year and year playing all these exciting World Team matches?
Anna: "Well, everything about it. I mean I love the format. I love the team format. I love that it's 3 hours of Tennis and it's amazing for the fans. It's Men's singles, Women's Singles, Doubles, Mixed. Everything (inaudible) into one with great music and the great part of that is that we're travelling and play in the areas where there's normally no big Tennis Tournaments so it's great to get in front of the fans that love Tennis but don't get the opportunity to see a lot of Tennis. So it's really incredible. I love the format and Billie Jean King did an amazing job coming up with it - god knows how many years ago, so."

Speaking of the format: It is very competitive. Some people don't realize how competitive it really is - kind of enlightening on the emotions in these World Team Tennis-matches and the will to win
Anna: "You know, whenever you go on the tennis court, you never want to lose, even if it's an exhibition match or a charity match or...! Especially World Team Tennis because you're playing for the team. You know there's rankings, there's ahhh, every point counts, every game counts. And, it's really competitive and for a lot of players it's a great warmup and practice during those few weeks between the tournaments. So everybody really wants to show their best results and it's extremely competitive."

Speaking of charity: What are you up to now these days? I hear you're helping out young kids, you're giving back to the game.
Anna: "Yeah you know I've been working with the Boys and Girls Club for over five years now and just, travel around the country and try to promote and encourage kids to get into sports. It doesn't necessarily have to be tennis. It can be soccer or, you know, basketball, baseball whatever. Just about - encouraging kids about being active and going outside and play and just running around and being kids basically. Because nowadays with so many gadgets out there, with all the phones and all the video games out there it's kind of hard to get kids, you know, socialising in person and really being active. So, you know, I've been doing a lot of travelling and encouraging kids to get active and to go outside and play."

Speaking of playing: What do you do to keep your game in shape? How hard are you training now these days for the World TeamTennis season and for Tennis in general?
Anna: "You know, I play a few times a week and I work out all the time. I haven't really started preparing yet for World TeamTennis. But I definitely gonna try to do my best and to get in the best shape, you know, that I can with all my travelling and, you know, I still love being back on the court and, especially for, when I play competitive matches. You know it's really a great feeling to be back on the court, so I'm definitely looking forward to it."

The New York Buzz won in 2008. What will it take to (inaudible) the Champions of the Northeast?
Anna: "I think it's all teamwork. I think it's all teamwork and which ever team is going to be the strongest and, you know, has the best chemistry, I think they're going to win."

My final question: Can we expect to see you doing anything else aside from Tennis? What else is going on in your life now, in the life of Anna Kournikova?
Anna: "Oh, there's so many things going on, you know, I am pretty busy. I like being busy, I'm really hyper, so I have a bunch of projects that I'm working on and working with the Boys and Girls Clubs, working with Cartoon Network, working with PSI, Population Services International, travelling around the world for, with them. You know, I'm also working with the USO, going, visiting troops everywhere and designing clothes for K-Swiss, playing World TeamTennis, playing exhibition matches, playing charity matches. There's a lot of stuff going on, so I'm very fortunate, I'm very lucky. "

 

transcribed by the Administrator of the AKFS

 

 
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 Find out more at Anna's offical website:
kournikova.com