In 2010, tennis champion Anna Kournikova was the world’s most searched-for female sports star.
The Russian-born athlete never won a singles title, and made it to ‘just’ number eight in the world as her highest rank in 2000; but it was her off-court appeal that saw her popularity survive years after her tennis career was over.
Kournikova turned professional at age 14, and her grace and beauty made her an instant media darling. At the height of her tennis career in the mid 1990s to the early 2000s, and for years after, she had numerous endorsements with major brands such as Adidas, and was a regular feature on magazine covers and ‘sexiest people’ lists.
Fast forward a decade from 2010, and as the world’s best tennis stars compete in this year’s Wimbledon tournament, Kournikova, 38, is not on the scene. Instead, she’s concentrating on her two biggest fans; her 18-month-old twins, Lucy and Nicholas.
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“I love being a mum. I absolutely wanted to have children, whether I had my own or adopted. I love taking care of people,” she recently told The Sun.