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WORLD TEAMTENNIS MEDIA CONFERENCEJune 25, 2009Anna KournikovaTHE MODERATOR: We are joined today by Anna Kournikova who will be playing her 7th season in the Advanta World TeamTennis Pro League this summer. She will play six match beginning July 6 in Philadelphia, July 7 at the New York Sportimes, July 8 at the Washington (D.C.) Kastles, July 10 at the Springfield Lasers, July 11 in St. Louis for her only home match of the year with the Aces and returning to Sacramento on July 13. So I want to welcome Anna. Thanks for joining us this afternoon, and we'll go ahead and open this up for questions. Q. Tell me about when was the last time you played in New York City. Was it the season-ending Championships at the Garden? ANNA KOURNIKOVA: Oh, wow, it was either that or maybe the US Open. I think it was probably the US Open. But it's an incredible city, there is incredible atmosphere for tennis. It's a great tennis community, obviously, with the US Open being there and everything. So I think it's going to be great for the fans around the area to have another event, another tennis event to go to right there and the stadium is supposed to be amazing and we are all looking forward to it. The more tennis there is around the country, the better it is, and it's always about promoting the sport. It's incredible. Q. What year was that US Open, do you remember the last time you were there? ANNA KOURNIKOVA: The last time I played the US Open, I think it was 2002. Q. And what do you like to do when you visit New York City? ANNA KOURNIKOVA: Mainly right now when I go there, I just go for work and pretty much in and out. But I've spent countless weeks in New York, and it's an incredible city. There's just a buzz in the air, the energy, the amazing mix of people and all of the arts and culture, the museums and all that. It's a great city. It's amazing. I like to enjoy all of the things it has to offer. I mean, before, when I was there most of my time I was playing, so I kind of had to rest early and stuff, but the last few years I've been around a little bit more. Q. When you played against McEnroe in World TeamTennis, can you describe his demeanor; he can be playful or serious. ANNA KOURNIKOVA: I've never played against him during a World TeamTennis match. I played with them, with John McEnroe and Jim Courier, a lot of exhibitions throughout the year, like the Legends series that Jim puts on and we play a lot of those matches. And he's always amazing. He puts on the best show for the crowd. He really is incredible, all of those guys, John McEnroe, Jim Courier, they are all in such amazing, amazing shape for not playing professionally for years now but they really, really are in incredible shape. They go out there really to win, and to fight. You know, John is John. He's incredible. He really has a great charisma and people love watching him, and he really performs amazing. Q. I'm going to move over to when you play in Philadelphia, I saw recently you got back from Germany and you said on your blog that they really know their tennis there. How do you think the Philadelphia fans rate in that regard? ANNA KOURNIKOVA: I think Philadelphia also has an amazing tennis community due to the tournament (Advanta Championships) that had been going on there for years. It was always one of the strongest fields because it was right before the Championship in November, October, I can't remember exactly what month, October I think. But a lot of these kind of areas are familiar with tennis, and tennis is really popular around the States. And then Philadelphia is no exception, like I said, because of the tournament that has been there and I'm sure it will be great. But how many years have you guys had the team there? Q. Oh, you know, I don't cover the team full-time, but it's been quite a while. I think we were one of the first teams. ANNA KOURNIKOVA: No, because the league is 30 years old. Q. THE MODERATOR: The (Philadelphia Freedoms) team played in 1974 and came back in 2000. Q. I know we had been here a long time ago. ANNA KOURNIKOVA: I think TeamTennis definitely helped to bring and attract new fans to tennis. But Philadelphia has a great tennis community, that's for sure. Q. And I see that before the tournament you are going to do a meet-and-greet. Do you enjoy those type of events? ANNA KOURNIKOVA: Definitely. You know, it's the people that come out and support us. It's the sponsors that make the event possible for the public and the fans, so you have got to give back and you've got to say your thanks and I definitely appreciate the sponsors and all of those companies that put up their money and time and organize the events in advance. You know, it's really nice for me to go and say hi and take pictures with the fans, and a lot of times it's mostly kids especially, which I love hanging out with kids. So, yeah, it's definitely fun. Q. This is your seventh season in World TeamTennis. What do you like most about TeamTennis? ANNA KOURNIKOVA: Everything. For me obviously I don't play on a professional tour and it's a great way for me to be back on the court. That's my personal kind of reason, and I want to come out and play, be able to be on the court and experience competitive tennis, in a short-term version instead of being on tour for 10, 11 months out of the year, which I wouldn't be possibly able to do now because physically-wise. But it's such an amazing idea that Billie Jean King came up with to have this league which brings tennis to the markets or to areas where there is not so many big tennis tournaments and not so many fans involved and people get to see some high, high-class tennis. And TeamTennis is cool because you get to see the young juniors and up-and-coming players, you get to see the current players and you get to see the legends or the retired players, if someone plays full time on the Tour, and it's men and women and you get to see everything in three hours. You get to see every single part of tennis. You get to see men's singles, women's singles, doubles, mixed, everything. The interaction with the fans is awesome. There's music playing. It's like a big Davis Cup party. It's always fun when it's a team atmosphere. So really it's an incredible idea that she came up with and I'm so glad that it's surviving and it's still around, and hopefully it will be around forever. Q. You play a few more matches every year in World TeamTennis, can you talk about your commitment growing to TeamTennis and what's behind that? And secondly, because this is your second year with the Aces, do you have any particular -- is there anything in particular about the Aces that you enjoy? ANNA KOURNIKOVA: Well, I love our team owner Dani (Apted-Schlottman), she's really amazing. She really makes the team feel like a team and just she's really, really incredible in terms of supporting us and getting into it. It's always a pleasure to feel that and you feel like a family. For me -- I'm glad that I was able to increase the play, the matches, the amount of matches for me, because I'm not full-time, obviously, on a Tour at all. So it's a great way for me again to be in a competitive atmosphere for a short period of time where I can get back out there and play some great tennis and see a lot of my friends and really just promote the game of tennis, because for me, it's really important. I love doing those clinics before matches with the little kids and stuff. So, yeah, everything about it, I'm glad that I am and I have the opportunity to play more matches every time. Q. Dani (Apted-Schlottman, Aces GM) has a lot of the team promoted as being very good looking. You were almost a pioneer in that way, not necessarily being sexy but one of the first people to promote it not just for tennis and good looks. Do you think of yourself that way, and like Ashley Harkleroad that was in Playboy; do you see that as going too far in some way? ANNA KOURNIKOVA: I mean, I don't know if I'm the pioneer or whatever. I really never thought about it that way. But I think first of all women are going to always probably get attention for that, for looking a certain way -- pretty or whatever. I think it happens not just in tennis but I think it happens in all the sports, or anywhere. I think people kind of pay attention to the way women look. Whether it's an office or in some other environment, I'm not sure, but really at the end of the day, it's about the sport and it's about the game, but it's promoting it a certain different way or as long as it's classy and it brings more people in, why not. I think at the end of the day, it's all up to each individual player the way they want to position themselves and the way they want to handle it. Q. You've hinted at it a couple of times, but do you miss being on tour and competing year-round? ANNA KOURNIKOVA: Obviously once you experience that life, that adrenaline on the court, playing in front of 10,000 people, night matches under the lights or Wimbledon Centre Court, you obviously miss that feeling, and it's very hard to duplicate it. It's one of a kind. But I find other joys and passions in life now that I am involved in and passionate about. But you can't not miss that, because obviously I enjoyed and I loved playing professionally. Yeah, it will be with me forever. Q. But you had such great success early in your career; a lot of people, they may recognize your name and it's not that we are saying that you are old. ANNA KOURNIKOVA: I am nowadays, yeah (laughter). Q. But what do you think -- do you feel like you're kind of in control? What do you think your legacy is going to be, because you're still so young, what do you think 25 years from now your legacy is going to be? ANNA KOURNIKOVA: Well, hopefully for me, it's really important what I'm doing right now, working with kids, working with the charity that I'm associated with, working with Boys & Girls Club, with PSI (Population Services International), with USO, and hopefully through my celebrity, I feel that I have a voice and I can bring attention to the causes that I am involved in. Even if I can make the young people aware of the things that I'm working or the organizations I'm working with, that's really important for me and I just kind of hope that I can make a difference in people's lives and the kids lives that I'm working with. And for me, that's the most important. Like when I go to Boys & Girls Clubs and I talk to kids in schools, if they can listen and hopefully learn and take out even one sentence out and apply it in their growing up process, I'm very happy with that. Because I've been through a lot in my young career, I've traveled and been away from home most of the time and have grown up in a public eye and had to deal with a lot of things, and now my goal is to really share those experiences, the good and the bad, with the kids that I'm working and hopefully they can learn from that. So basically I would really like to have some kind of influence on the young generation. Q. How do you feel about returning to Sacramento for the first time since playing for the Capitals? ANNA KOURNIKOVA: I feel kind of nostalgic. I had such a great time there with Lonnie (Nielson, Sacramento Capitals owner) and my whole team there. I played with Mark Knowles for years on the Tour. We played almost every Grand Slam and mixed doubles, and playing on the team with him there was a great experience, and obviously was one of my best friends, Elena Likhovtseva, I played with her throughout my career on the tour and on the Sacramento team. So it's definitely nostalgic, and I'm looking forward to it. I'm sure I'll have a great time. Hopefully the crowd, it will be good, and I'm looking forward to it, definitely: Q. Any memories that stand out? ANNA KOURNIKOVA: I just loved playing for the team. It was a complete family experience for me, playing with my teammates and it was just really cool. Like I said, the whole experience was very, very pleasant and obviously I was sad when I started playing for a new team, but you move on and now I'm comfortable now on my new team. Q. Before Svetlana (Kuznetsova) won at Roland Garros, she was asked about the Russian revolution, the success of Russian women, and she gave quite a bit of credit to yourself? ANNA KOURNIKOVA: Oh, she's such a sweetheart -- Q. And also Boris Yeltsin, if you could take a moment to reflect on that and get your thoughts. ANNA KOURNIKOVA: I mean, she is definitely right about Boris Yeltsin, that was his favorite sport and he definitely brought a lot of attention to tennis in Russia, and I think it really, really helped. I remember when I was growing up there and playing the tournament there, the Kremlin Cup, he would always come out and watch and it was a big deal and I think it definitely created a huge buzz. But tennis was always very, very popular in Russia. It's just very, very expensive for most people to afford, or you had to be really good to be in the government system to be able to play and go to the clubs for free. It was just not very accessible. It's not like soccer or hockey where it's always cold in Russia, so you could play hockey all the time or soccer. Obviously it's much cheaper. You don't need that much. But tennis was very inaccessible, and the weather was always bad. But in general, it was always popular, and the schools are really good. We have always had great coaches and I think most of the players from Eastern Europe are just a little more hungrier than some other countries. I think they are a little hungrier and they probably are pushing themselves a lot more to achieve things and to travel. It was one of the ways to get out and see the world. Q. Are you proud of that legacy, though, that you will be looked upon as somebody who really sort of helped spread the message that this was a place you could achieve great things? ANNA KOURNIKOVA: Definitely, I mean, it feels nice, the way you put it right now, it sounds really nice, and that's what I'm hoping to do now with the kids here. I've been actually involved with the USTA promoting tennis for youths and kids. Hopefully I'll be able to attract attention for the kids here, also. Q. When you look back to your early days at the Bollettieri Academy now, the pictures of you as a young kid in ponytails, does that seem like a lifetime ago? ANNA KOURNIKOVA: It's funny, it does, when I look at the pictures. You're right, it does. But at the same time, it's amazing, I remember so many moments and I remember the hard work, the fun work. I remember Nick being happy and Nick taking us on jet skies and having just fun at the same time, but always also he was very disciplined. He really installed this discipline in us and everything. It does seem like a lifetime away, but there are certain moments that I remember completely clearly. It does feel that it was a lifetime ago, but I love looking back at it now and I couldn't have had any better childhood, honestly. I really am lucky that way, that I had that. I really am happy and not that it was super easy. It was a lot of hard work, and being away from home and being so young, but I wouldn't have it any other way. I wouldn't trade it for anything. I really feel that it gave me the experiences that I got that really made me the person that I am and it was really a great time. Q. If you could use your fame to make the world a better place, what would be your first endeavor? ANNA KOURNIKOVA: Wow, it's kind of a trick question, because there's so many things that I would try to, and not to sound cliché, but there's so many things that we can do. I've just been to Haiti, experienced things, the life there, and I visited the troops with the USO. There are a lot of things I would do, and I'm trying to do as much as I can. But I don't even want to say that there's one thing, because there's so many, and really my main focus is paying attention and focusing on the kids, because they are -- as cliché as it sounds, but it's true, but they are the future. For me, I just enjoy spending time with them and I'm able to share my experiences with them and help them out and coping with their life or with their difficulties or with growing up. But there's really way too many things that we can all do. Q. In your opinion what is your greatest sport achievement? ANNA KOURNIKOVA: Well, for me it was just -- I don't think it's just one thing. For me I am super lucky that I even got involved with tennis when I was five years old. My parents I think just wanted free day care because they were still young and they didn't know what to do with me. I happened to be pretty good at a young age, and where I came from and where I got. I came from not much, and I just look back and think what I could have been doing back in Russia. I was born in the Soviet Union during tough times, and I traveled the world and had an amazing career that I'm very proud of, and I've achieved a lot of personal goals and a lot of things that I wanted to achieve, and I'm still growing. I'm still growing and I'm only 28 years old. There's still so, so many things that I want to do. Sports in general for me were always about feeling amazing and good on the court, creating something amazing with the ball. I know I wasn't the most consistent player, especially on the court. What hurt me a lot was that I was always blamed for (going for) the difficult shot instead of going for the simple shot. I'm really proud of a lot of my big wins. It was always an incredible feeling beating a No. 1 player in the world and beating my idol, Monica Seles or beating Martina Hingis or beating Steffi Graf on the grass, all those No. 1 players was a huge achievement for me beating them. And then being in the top ten in the world and being No. 1 in doubles, all of those things I think I did pretty good. Q. What TeamTennis is like, I've never seen it before myself. Can you describe what the fans can look forward to? ANNA KOURNIKOVA: Well, TeamTennis is a perfect mix. First of all, most of the areas where we play in, there's not big tennis tournaments, but there are huge tennis communities, so it's great for the fans to see tennis, and also it's all very accessible and in three hours, you can see everything. You can see men's single, men's doubles, women's singles, women's doubles, mixed doubles, and then you get to see three generations. You get to see the juniors, the young and up-and-coming players, you get to see the current players that are on tour, you get to see the legends that are retired or people that don't play anymore full-time. You have people like Pete Sampras playing, and you have people like 14-year-olds playing, and the fans really get to interact with the players. There's music going on and you can scream and cheer and there's team atmosphere. So it really is a great, fun evening. And like I said, you get to see everything in three hours. Q. I just wanted to ask you briefly about you working with these charities, about your charity work, and first, are the kids awestruck when they see you and can you share any funny stories? ANNA KOURNIKOVA: It's funny, some of them don't even know who I am sometimes because they are like really, really young, or they are in some rural areas where they don't even know what tennis is. But a lot of them definitely, like the older kids, college, high school kids or the middle school kids do know. But most important for the kids when I visit them, even if they don't know who I am or what tennis is, you go in there and they look at you with that curiosity in their eyes and the innocence, and they just want attention and to be heard and they ask you anything from the simplest, simplest questions - what did you have for breakfast today - to serious questions, where girls ask questions, how do you cope with women's personal issues. So for me, really it's about talking to them, not just only about the sport, the tennis, but it's about how to deal -- when I talk to kids on the military basis in Germany or in Guam about how to be away from home, and we talk about that. It's really about just connecting with them and try to connect with them on the same level as them. I always felt that connection, and for me, it's more about really just spending the time with them and giving them that kind of attention -- to understand each other and to listen to that. For me, it's all about that with the kids. THE MODERATOR: Thank you all very much. End of FastScripts |
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