|
by Prip Anna Kournikova once again has shone on the doubles court, taking the title at the Sydney adidas Open with Barbara Schett. Ironically, this title win beats their previous best result, which was a semifinal appearance at the Aussie Open last year, in which they lost to the very same pair -- Lisa Raymond and Rennae Stubbs. Now, the question remains: why does Anna do so much better on the doubles court than in the singles? Of course, she has had her pick of doubles partners, but is an excellent doubles player in her own right. Exuding far more confidence on the doubles court than the singles, it is simply baffling sometimes, the state Anna's game reaches. One of the key factors seems to be her sudden affinity for the baseline. Anna had a much greater tendency to come to net about five years ago, and had a beautiful all-court game that held great potential. In the last couple of years, she has become a lot less likely to move beyond the baseline except to finish off points, for some reason. Clearly, she still feels comfortable off the baseline. En route to reaching her ranking high of # 8, she went through a fairly long period in which she only lost to top ten players. Then came the fall in Eastbourne in 1998 against Steffi Graf in which she damaged ligaments in her thumb, marking the start of her serving woes. Another major factor will have to be the media. Ill-informed reporters looking for a quick scoop keep harping on Anna's lack of a title. In reality, Anna made a decision early in her career to play the biggest events she could get into to gain experience, taking into account the fact that she squeaked past the Age Eligibility Rules. The issue of her lack of a singles title turns up in nearly every press conference she's attended, and is certainly something that frustrates the Russian. It has progressed to the point that even players who play against her are repeatedly queried on the issue. Perhaps Corina Morariu handled the situation best of all. She explained very clearly that the players mostly could not care less that Anna will not have to worry about defending a title for at least another year. Very honestly, she stressed that it only seems to be the media that makes a big deal about this, and went on to say that she wonders when will be enough to satiate this feeding frenzy. When will be enough? If Anna were to win a tier II event tomorrow, would it put a stop on the criticism? Of course, she could very easily show up at Warsaw or Budapest and take the winner's cheque, but at this point, I think that nothing less than a strong tier I or II will satiate the pundits. The bottom line is that a player plays good tennis and posts consistent results. If Anna can regularly chalk up wins against top ten players and occasionally against Hingis, Davenport and Williams X 2, without taking a title, does that make her any less of a player? What people need to do is take the pressure off the girl and let her grow. She has already done rather well despite the circumstances, especially with the coach situation, and the more her actions are questioned, the more reclusive and hostile she will become towards the media, the eyes of the world. |