THE SCOOP: WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 1

Anna: No marriage, no engagement … ‘yes’ to surgery

By Matthew Cronin
tennisreporters.net

Susan Mullane Camerawork USA, Inc.

SAN DIEGO, AUG. 1 – tennisreporters.net is too youthful to have had the golden opportunity to cover the career of Marilyn Monroe, but we're still spry enough to spend many of our waking hours paying attention to the sometimes obscured reality of Anna Kournikova.

On Wednesday at the $750,000 Acura Classic, tennisreporters.net received a call from Anna's representatives at Octagon, who said that they would give our reporter (who also writes for Reuters) an exclusive flat denial from Anna of her alleged marriage to Detroit Red Wings hockey star Sergei Fedorov. tennisreporters.net had discussed Anna's roundabout denial with them late in the evening Tuesday and suggested that their multi-million dollar client might just want to say, "No, I'm not married," rather than what she had said.

"I don't need to justify every single rumor from the tabloids," Anna said Tuesday night. "If I did, I wouldn't have any time to concentrate on my tennis and that's what you guys say I need to concentrate on. I've always been doing that but I'm trying to prove it to you. So I'm not going to justify any false rumors."

So on Wednesday, Anna and Octagon developed this statement, gave it to tennisreporters.net and released it on her Lycos web site. "While I don't typically comment on my personal life, let me confirm once again that I am not married," Anna said. "I can't be any clearer on this subject and I hope the rumors will stop."

We asked Octagon whether Anna would like to speak directly to us about the
matter, but Octagon said she was satisfied with the statement. A source from Kournikova's camp did tell us that Kournikova is not engaged to Fedorov and has been wearing the same diamond ring on her finger for the past year and a half. So although there are a couple of major Russian reporters here in sunny La Costa insisting that Anna is married because she is wearing a ring on the fourth finger of her right hand (which, apparently, is the custom for married Russian woman), tennisreporters.net is of the opinion the starlet is not married.

Of course, we also wrote an extensive story nearly two weeks ago quoting
Octagon about the possibility that Anna had surgery on her bum foot during
the six months she was out and Octagon would neither conform or deny it.
Guess what, tennisreporters.net discovered on Tuesday night that Anna did have surgery on her foot in April. But in a discussion with us Wednesday night, Octagon's Phil de Picciotto (Anna's agent), said that he only denied that the surgery happened immediately after the injury occurred in February, which he did not consider a complete denial.

As they say on their slick surfboards on Carlsbad State Beach just a few
miles from here, "Whatever, dude."

For the most part, Anna has been very forthcoming this week, so we'll give
them the benefit of the doubt – this time.

Until this week, the wildly popular Kournikova had been off the court since
February recovering from a stress fracture in her left foot. At first, she
took six weeks off, had her foot put in a cast but when the boot came off, it
hadn't healed. She then went under the knife in April and had a pin placed in
her foot.

"Every time, every month you are waiting and waiting," she said after her
desultory three-set loss to Nicole Pratt. "It got a little frustrating. [During the French Open] I was on the court practicing in London but then I felt discomfort in a different place. I had to stop again and was in a cast for another three or four weeks because the foot was inactive for so long. I hope that doesn't happen this time. I have to be really careful. Everything is so new again. I think I'm not going to be able to walk tomorrow I'll be so sore." In our opinion, Anna came back a week too soon. She only had two weeks of practice before coming here and is obviously lacking footspeed and conditioning.

The number-nine-seeded Russian never looked comfortable on the court against
the 28-year-old Pratt, frequently flying forehands outside the lines and not
moving with her normal vigor. After the first set where she displayed some
brilliant volleying and solid backhands, she began to hit short and lost a
lot of speed off her serve. In the first set, she gunned in a few first serves at 101 mph. But by the end of the third set, her first serve dipped to an average of 77 mph, which isn't going to get it done against anyone.

"For a first match I didn't play so bad," said Kournikova, who will likely
fall out of the top 20 next week. "This was the best day I had since starting
practice two weeks ago. In the first set I was fresher. Nicole is a player
who always fights to the end and try to bring everything back. I had a little
difficulty finishing the points. I had to really work and gave it my all."
Pratt, who was 0-3 against Kournikova entering the match, said that her
opponent wasn't the same player who destroyed her in Philadelphia last
November.

"She was a little hesitant," Pratt said. "She didn't have the same
penetration that she normally did. But that's expected when you have played
in so long." Kournikova said she's crossing her fingers that she'll be able to get back on the court again to play doubles with Martina Hingis (more on that enticing
reunion later this week). "I had no real pain tonight but it's really sore right now," Kournikova said. "But it was just a great feeling to be out on court moving again even though I wasn't moving perfectly sometimes. I was making such giant steps that I completely had no rhythm."