The Russian tennis player was forced to remove her underwear. And Anya freaked out

The Russian woman came to the next Grand Slam tournament no longer in the status of a favorite. At Wimbledon 2002, the 21-year-old Kournikova was already approaching the end of her career, although at that time it was not yet clear. In any case, in the media field, Anna remained a superstar, the girlfriend of Enrique Iglesias, who appears on TV more often than Hollywood actors.

This made the scandal that the Russian woman got into because of her underwear even louder.

Why was she forced to take off her clothes?

At 21, Kournikova has already managed to take part in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, take many titles in doubles and sometimes shine brightly in singles. In the growth of her popularity, of course, her appearance played a big role. Anna was called to appear in fashion magazines, advertisements, music videos. And the personal life of a young girl was stormy. The Russian woman had an affair with compatriot and legendary hockey player Sergei Fedorov, and then she found happiness with world pop star Enrique Iglesias.

Tennis gradually faded into the background, so that at Wimbledon 2002, the fans did not have great expectations from Anna. Moreover, in the first round she had to play with another Russian woman, Tatyana Panova, who at that time was in her best shape. The tennis players calmly played for 15 minutes of the match, and then the judges stopped the meeting and turned to Kournikova with a demand to take off her underwear.

People in the stands and at the TV screens did not immediately understand what was happening. It turned out that Anna grossly violated the Wimbledon dress code, which stipulates that all the athlete’s clothes must be white. Kournikova, on the other hand, entered the court in black underwear that looked like shorts, because she was uncomfortable in a white skirt. Wimbledon officials, apparently, at first also forgot about this rule, and when they came to their senses, they immediately informed the Russian woman about it.

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

Scandal after the incident and retirement

Kournikova had no choice but to agree with the organizers, otherwise it threatened her with defeat and relegation in the first round. And so shameful too. Although both eventually happened. Anna found baggy white men’s shorts from her trainer. It is clear that they were extremely inconvenient to play. It is not surprising that she lost the first set to the nines.

But in the second, she pulled herself together and equalized the score in the match. There was a tense struggle in the decisive game, which eventually ended in the defeat of Kournikova with a score of 4:6. But the story didn’t end there either. After leaving Wimbledon, Anna went to an interview with BBC journalist Harry Richardson, who first of all asked about the tennis player’s self-confidence. The answer of the Russian woman was tough.

How do you even know if I’m sure of myself or not? Did you think of something? And no one cares what you think. And in general, I advise you to better formulate questions, ”Kournikova responded.

At some point, the 21-year-old tennis player was even ready to leave the studio in hysterics, but still found the strength to calm down and returned to the air. Although, of course, the scandal spread around the world with lightning speed. Anna was destroyed by all Western media, many colleagues and journalists. Coincidence or not, but after this episode, Kournikova’s career was actually completed. The Russian woman played the last official match in May 2003, and then gave up the sport.