A naked man interrupted a Wimbledon match. Beauty from Russia had to hide her face!

The next Wimbledon tournament attracts, like a magnet, environmental activists who now and then run out onto the court, trying to convey their theses to the world. It is unlikely that the participants in the matches can be satisfied with such unplanned visits, but fortunately for them, the activists at least arrange their actions without taking off their clothes.

Naked fans also looked at Wimbledon – one of these characters once embarrassed a Russian tennis player during a match.

Anna had to hide her face behind a towel.

second chance kournikova

At the turn of the century, Anna Kournikova was one of the most popular tennis players not only in our country, but also in the world. True, the Russian woman did not demonstrate absolutely dizzying sports successes: the highest position in the world ranking is eighth, and the Wimbledon semi-finals in 1997 became the best individual result in the Grand Slam tournaments. And yet, thanks to an active social life and participation in high-profile advertising campaigns, the girl could claim the role of a star in any major tournament.

At Wimbledon 2000, Kournikova was not among the top favorites in women’s singles. The top seed was Martina Hingis of Switzerland, and the eventual winner was No. 5 American Venus Williams, who defeated another US representative, Lindsay Davenport, in the final. Anna, having outplayed Frenchwoman Sandrine Testu at the start, flew out in the second round, losing to another athlete from France, Anne-Gael Sido. However, despite the personal failure, the Russian woman retained a second chance to compete for the trophy. To do this, it was necessary to excel in doubles.

Anna Kournikova / Photo: © Clive Brunskill / Staff / Getty Images Sport / Gettyimages.ru

Together with Natalya Zvereva from Belarus, Kournikova knocked out the South African and Czech-German couples from the fight. In the third round, they had to compete with athletes from the USA: Amy Frazier and Cathy Schlakeber. The opponents were not included in the elite, but it was dangerous to lose concentration in any case. However, how can one not be distracted when this begins to happen on the court!

“Only balls bounce”

During a short pause in the match, when the participants discussed the plan for the next segment, the referee asked to bring new balls, shouting “New balls please!”. And immediately after that, a naked man jumped over the fences. The intruder rolled across the grass, then ran along the court. Only after a minute and a half, the guards managed to neutralize the hooligan, driving him into a corner. At the same time, nothing worse than a fine shone for him, so it is unlikely that the fan was very sorry about what happened.

The tennis players were embarrassed by the sight of a naked fan: Kournikova hid her face behind a towel, Zvereva completely covered her whole head. The Americans reacted a little differently – both laughed, one of them did not even hide her eyes. For them, such hooliganism probably turned out to be more familiar – in North America, streaks gained popularity back in the 1960s. Nude people with social and political appeals and without them now and then appeared on all kinds of sports grounds in a number of Western and then Eastern countries.

The Wimbledon striker, who turned out to be Briton Mark Roberts, apparently planned to impress not the American tennis players, but Kournikova. The Liverpool bully had the inscription “Only The Balls Bounce” (“Only the balls jump”). It was the same slogan that sounded in the advertising of bras, the main face of which was Anna. If you pay attention to the fact that the word balls in colloquial speech is used as a designation for the male reproductive glands, then the humor of the whole situation, from the request of the judge to the mentioned slogan, is perceived a little differently.

Anna Kournikova / Photo: © Phil Cole / Staff / Getty Images Sport / Gettyimages.ru

Famous streaker

True, one should not think that the English hooligan was somehow particularly obsessed with the Russian beauty. In such a shocking form, he appeared at sporting events hundreds of times, both before this incident and after. Lleyton Hewitt and David Nalbandian watched naked somersaults over the net in the Wimbledon final, Mark scared the appearance of David Beckham during El Clasico and Zinedine Zidane with Michael Ballack in the Champions League final. The hooligan’s collection includes winter and summer Olympics, world championships in snooker, swimming, golf and curling tournaments. A naked Briton somehow even dared to appear at a dog show, covering the causal place with an overlay in the form of a cat’s muzzle.

PHOTO British streaker Mark Roberts (at any public event)

The hooligan succeeded in embarrassing Kournikova, but he did not knock him off his victorious mood. Together with Zvereva, they defeated the Americans in two sets – 6:2, 6:1 and advanced to the quarterfinals. The Williams sisters managed to stop the Russian couple only in the semi-finals, who eventually got the trophy. By the way, it was the best result for Anna at Wimbledon in doubles. So who knows, maybe it was the appearance of Mark Roberts with support in the form of a familiar slogan that helped the Russian woman achieve results.

After that, the famous streaker continued to frolic in other tournaments, and for Kournikova, the story with naked strangers did not end. In 2005, she was stalked in Florida by an American of no fixed abode, William Lepeska. Then the Russian woman had to be frightened for real, unlike the harmless Roberts, the purposeful homeless man swam to the island where Anna lived, and only a miracle saved the athlete from an unpleasant acquaintance – the fan tritely confused the address.