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EXCLUSIVE
Coach Solomon Talks About his Pupil
Kournikova preparing to return to the tour
By Sandra Harwitt
tennisreporters.net
It was billed as a private media event to promote two upcoming Miami sporting events – the NASDAQ-100 Open coming up this March 19-30 and this weekend's Toyota Indy 300. Starring in the intimate outing was none other than tennis starlet Anna Kournikova along with fellow player Jan-Michael Gambill representing tennis and two-time defending Indy 500 champion Helio Castroneves and two-time National Champion Gil de Ferran representing auto racing.
Kournikova arrived in a dark green car with vanity plates that read "SHOW PRO" – no, tennisreporters.net does not know if these were Anna's wheels or someone else's that she borrowed. What we do know is that blaring from the car stereo was the music of her favorite guy, Enrique Inglesias.
There was no doubt that the foursome had a good time – joking and egging each other on – while playing a exhibition set for the assembled media, mainly TV camera crews and photographers. Kournikova had the benefit of teaming with Castroneves, who told tr.net in an exclusive article last August that he used to play tennis tournaments when he was a child, which was easy to tell when you observed his solid shot making. The twosome ruled the day over the team of Gambill-de Ferran.
After the festivities, however, Kournikova reverted to her usual reticent way when faced with questions about her personal life from the media, who mobbed her courtside. She declined to discuss boyfriend Inglesias as well as the meaning of her necklace, which was emblazoned with the word "CHEEKS" to which she replied, "It's nothing – it's just jewelry."
Nevertheless, she did give a few brief comments relating to tennis, most notably that she'll return to the tour at the NASDAQ-100 Open in late March.
Sidelined with an ankle injury sustained last fall at Moscow, Kournikova's two return tournaments in Australia in January went badly. While she did win her first Grand Slam match in almost two years by beating Henrieta Nagyova 6-1, 6-2 in the first round of the Australian Open, she fell easily to Justine Henin-Hardenne in the second round and pulled out of her next scheduled event in Tokyo with a sprained back. In the past few weeks she's been back on the court practicing and building up her game. When asked if she felt she was ready to return to the tour, Castroneves jumped in and jokingly took some credit for her state of preparedness saying, "After this match, she is."
About the injuries that have plagued Kournikova the past two years, most notably a stress fracture to her left foot that kept her from playing for most of the 2001 season, Kournikova took the high road, saying, "Yeah it is, it's part of the sport being injured and I just have to get healthy and get stronger and come back stronger."
The one thing that constantly trails Kournikova is that she's clearly one of the most recognizable sports figures in the world – something of a surprise considering the fact that since joining the tour close to full-time in 1996, she has yet to win a tour-level title. She's had four stints as tournament finalist, most recently in Shanghai last fall, but can't seem to take the final step to victory. If she stays healthy, however, she'll once again have an opportunity to rectify that situation in the future.
As Kournikova headed towards a look at an IRL IndyCar Series race car with Castroneves, de Ferran and Gambill, tr.net took the opportunity to have a private chat with Kournikova's coach Harold Solomon. The former Top 5 player, a finalist at Roland Garros in 1976, will celebrate his first anniversary of coaching Kournikova this coming April.
tennisreporters.net: Do you feel that Anna is healthy and ready to get back on the road?
Harold Solomon: At this point she's good, she's been able to start working harder now and I think she should be ready by the time this tournament comes around. This will be her first event.
tr.net: Now that she is coming back to the tour, what are your goals for Anna to accomplish in the early stages of her return to playing?
Solomon: Getting through the first three or four tournaments and winning some matches and just playing matches more than anything. She needs to play matches – being injured like she's been she hasn't played that many tournaments in the last six months – she's hardly played at all. She played Moscow after the finals of Shanghai and then got hurt, didn't play the rest of November or December and two tournaments in January, so she's played two tournaments in the last five months. So she needs to play matches, get used to staying in there and get used to playing points again.
tr.net: It seems that it must be difficult for Anna from a mental standpoint since every time she seems to get her game together another injury creeps up. Can you talk about that perspective and how you think she's handling the situation?
Solomon: I think the fall was the big downside one – she was playing some really good tennis in the fall and she really built up some momentum and then that injury where she twisted her ankle at Moscow really put a damper on things. But she's starting to work very hard now – we have a physical trainer working with her and doing some really good work. I think she'll be ready by the time the NASDAQ comes around and hopefully be able to carry it through. She doesn’t' have too many points coming up anymore so she has pretty much a wide open next six months.
tr.net: Do you think it's possible for Anna to return to the tour at where she basically left off when she sprained her ankle in Moscow or will she be starting from scratch again?
Solomon: I hope she's going to be better than she was. She's going to be better than the way she played against Henin, for sure, down in Australia. – I think she'll be better than that. I think she's starting to hit the ball like she was in the fall, which is very good because it's a step in the right direction.
tr.net: You've been working together for close to a year now. What are your thoughts on your coaching-player relationship?
Solomon: I think we're heading in the right direction. She's been really busting her butt, really working hard, really doing what she needs to do so I feel good about that.
tr.net: You mentioned Anna's been doing a lot of off-court work with a trainer. Can you give us an idea of what kind of things she's been undertaking in that area?
Solomon: Everything – gym work, boxing, running. But she has to be really careful with her back so she's had to ease into it.
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