Kournikova defends herself against critics

Anna Kournikova seems to spend her life launching impassioned defences of her sporting credibility.

But even her own coach, tennis guru Harold Solomon, needed to be won over by the much-maligned Russian initially.

"Harold asked me a billion times: 'I want to make sure you are committed'," Kournikova told Reuters in an exclusive interview.

"I said: 'Why would I go waste your and my time doing all the things we are doing if I wasn't?"

As the wait goes on for Kournikova's first ever singles Tour title, the 21-year-old player is subjected to ridicule and criticism of increasing intensity.

The reputation and hype that go before her, the enormous wealth estimated at $75 million and the off-court commercial activities are seen by many as incompatible with becoming a successful athlete.

Kournikova is affronted by such suggestions, insistent that, although her world ranking has plummeted from number eight at the end of 2000 to number 54 now, she is desperate to prove people wrong.

"I could be on the beach instead of doing all this work," she admits.

"If I was doing this halfway, I could be at my beautiful house, getting a sun tan and having fun instead of wasting somebody's time.

"I could be just enjoying everything I've done already. But there are a lot of things I still want to accomplish in tennis."

ALL-TIME LOW

Her pleas fell on deaf ears at Wimbledon last month.

Her agency, Octagon, convinced her last year that building a better relationship with journalists would make it easier to win on court, but all that went out the window when acrimony between her and the media reached an all-time low in London.

After crashing out in the first round, a fuming Kournikova walked out of an interview with BBC television after the reporter asked if she had considered playing some lower-tier tournaments to regain her confidence.

News of her act of petulance was greeted with glee by the British tabloids.

The Muscovite, who enjoyed her first win in two months at the Bank of the West Classic here in California this week, does not excuse her outburst but believes she was treated unfairly by the interviewer.

She explained: "I come out after losing 6-4 in the third set and I'm beyond disappointed and he's throwing all these things at me, like 'am I committed?'

"It gets tiring to be asked the same things millions of times. Of course I'm committed.

"There are some times, like anyone else, that I'm in a bad mood. It doesn't mean that I have to be mean...but just like anyone, I have bad days."

Kournikova reached three semi-finals earlier this year, and has failed in the final of three Tour tournaments in recent years.

She still demands to be talked of in the same breath as the Williams sisters, Serena and Venus, and Jennifer Capriati, and scoffs at suggestions that she should play satellite tournaments just to break her title duck -- saying they would crush her love for the game.

INJURY SETBACK

"I've been really close (to my first title)," she said.

"They always say I should go and play a smaller tournament and win but it's not going to make me feel good if I go and beat the world number 1,000 in the final.

"It is about winning a tournament but it's more about how I feel on court and my ranking."

There is no question that, under Solomon since the pair started working together earlier this year, Kournikova's poor form is beginning to bottom out.

She deserves to remind critics that she spent eight months on the sidelines last year with a stress fracture of the foot -- the sort of lay-off which would disrupt anyone's career.

If she can play consistently the way she did in beating world number 18 Anna Smashnova and Indonesia's Wynne Prakusya to reach the last eight this week, it is easy to see Kournikova climbing her way back into the top 10.

What will aid her further, she believes, is a growing maturity.

Equanimity might have been in short supply at Wimbledon but she is learning to cope with the demands of her fame.

"I was 14 when I started on Tour, what did I know?" she said.

"I can't even remember what I was thinking back then. It's totally different now, my whole mentality.

GROWING UP

"Now I actually think about things. That's part of growing up -- although I'm doing it in front of everybody.

"I don't like to talk about myself that much...I get shy sometimes. (In public) I'm always on the defensive because I'm used to people grabbing at me a little bit.

"But if I'm with my friends at my house, I can laugh and joke. With people I don't know well, I'm thinking maybe they want to take something from me. I'm not as comfortable.

"I'm not going to say (a lack of privacy) is easy but I'm used to it.

"I just go about my things and not get too worried about it. I can go out sometimes but I have to be pretty sneaky."

Despite the snipers, at least she no longer has to convince Solomon. The man who has coached Capriati and Mary Joe Fernandez to the top of the game is well and truly converted.

"She's growing up in front of the world aged 21 while most girls of her age are allowed to make mistakes in private," said Solomon.

"But she is thinking, learning, questioning, making plans about how she wants to go about her life.

"It's not haphazard or random, it's all thought out in her head."