Anastasia Myskina is known to Russian tennis fans primarily as the winner of Roland Garros in 2004, when she beat compatriot Elena Dementieva in the final. But there were other high-profile events in Myskina’s life – not always, alas, with a positive connotation.
One day, explicit photographs of the athlete ended up in the press against her will.
Model on horse
In 2002, Myskina did not yet have great achievements at Grand Slam tournaments, but was already in the top part of the WTA rankings. Not only sports publications, but also fashion magazines became interested in the bright tennis player from Russia. The American edition of GQ even decided to organize a special photo shoot for Anastasia.
Among the many photographs taken by photographer Mark Seliger, there were those in which Myskina appeared naked in very revealing poses. The most original was the photograph in which the athlete sits on a horse in a forest scenery, completely naked, like the heroine of one of Edouard Manet’s paintings.
Two years later, the Russian magazine “Bear” published photographs of Myskina, which it officially acquired from GQ. This is where the scandal broke out. Anastasia was extremely outraged that her photographs became public knowledge.
Did she really not understand what she was getting into?
8 million per publication
As it turned out, Myskina did not give any permission to publish the photographs, much less distribute them. Back in 2002, she told the photographer that he could keep the pictures for his collection, but nothing more. However, even then, a naked photo of Anastasia appeared in the Russian-language edition of GQ, and then in that same “Bear” – a magazine for adult men. Upon learning of that same photo shoot, Myskina immediately filed a lawsuit.
The tennis player claimed that at that time she spoke little English, and GQ took advantage of this when signing a contract with her. Anastasia demanded $8 million in compensation because the publication of the photos caused her “great emotional suffering” and “damaged her reputation.”
The publishers, in turn, made excuses. The editor-in-chief of Russian GQ Nikolai Uskov noted that there is inconsistency in Myskina’s actions, because she knew about the publications two years ago.
– Then [в 2002 году] we also published one of the pictures from this series – naked Myskina on a horse. But no lawsuits followed. True, we recently photographed the tennis player again for the Olympic issue of the magazine, and she complained that she was dissatisfied with that publication. She said that because of the photograph she could not show the magazine to her mother,” Uskov told Gazeta.
Medved was also surprised by the lawsuit. Publisher Igor Svinarenko said that there is nothing so revealing in the photographs at all, and they “can be shown to children.” The court ultimately sided with the journalists. Even the fact that Myskina signed a document in which she did not understand anything did not influence the decision. The tennis player herself said that because of the pictures she even had friction with her boyfriend.
“He says: whoever likes it, communicate with him.” So we are strict with this,” the athlete shared with Komsomolskaya Pravda.
The scandal broke just a few months after Myskina won her first and last Grand Slam tournament, Roland-Garros 2004. Alas, after this the athlete no longer achieved such success.
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Austrian tennis player Sebastian Ofner (ATP 131) suffered a disappointing defeat in the second round of the 2026 Australian Open qualifiers.
In the semi-finals of the selection, the Austrian player lost to the US representative in three sets Nisheshu Basavareddy (ATP 239) in 2 hours 32 minutes. Basavareddy took the victory over Ofner in the third set super tiebreaker.
Sebastian was ahead 7:1 in the super tiebreaker and started celebrating his victory after gaining a point. Sebastian started walking towards the goal and the referee told him the match wasn’t over yet.
As a result, Ofner lost 11:13 and missed two match points: one at 10:9 on the return, the other at 11:10 on serve.
Basavareddy will compete against George Loffagen (Great Britain, ATP 211) in the Australian Open qualifying final.
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On January 14, all second round matches in tough tournaments ended WTA 500 in Adelaide And WTA 250 in HobartIt will take place parallel to the Australian Open 2026 qualifying match (Melbourne).
In Adelaide, Dayana Yastremskaya’s felon Katerina Sinyakova lost to Diana Schneider in the second round.
The best moments of tennis matches LIVE on Telegram channel Tennis on Sport.ua
Second-seeded five-hundred Madison Keys knocked out Tereza Valentova, and eighth-seeded Victoria Mboko fought Anna Kalinskaya.
Victoria Mboko [8] – 🏳️ Anna Kalinskaya – 6:2, 3:6, 7:6 (8:6) Teresa Valentova – Madison Keys [2] – 4:6, 1:6
WTA 500 Adelaide. Quarter final matches
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🏳️Mirra Andreeva [3] – Ayla Tomljanovic [WC]
🏳️Diana Schneider [9] – Emma Navarro [6]
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Kimberly Birrell- Jacqueline Christian [Q] Victoria Mboko [8] – Madison Keys [2]
Video review of match day in Adelaide
In Hobart, top seed Emma Raducanu advanced to the quarter-finals without a fight – Magdalena French withdrew from her second round match.
Olga Danilovich, who defeated McCartney Kessler and advanced to the second place, also defeated Peyton Stearns in the 1/8 final.
Third-seeded Iva Jovic crushes her opponents: The young American first gave up just one game to Janice Tjen and then defeated Renata Sarasua with scores of 6:1, 6:2. Her next opponent will be Magda Linette.
WTA 250 Hobart. 1/8 final
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Emma Raducanu [1] – Magdalena French – WO., Raducanu Rebecca Shramkova – Talia Preston [WC] – 4:6, 1:6
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(Adelaide) Leylah Annie Fernandez and her Hungarian playing partner Timea Babos fell 7-6 (3), 6-7 (6) and 6-10 to the Czech Katerina Siniakova and the Chinese Zhang Shuai in the quarter-finals of the women’s doubles at the Adelaide tennis tournament on Wednesday.
Fernandez and Babos bowed after a tight duel lasting one hour and 59 minutes in front of the second seeds of the doubles tournament.
Siniakova and Zhang will face Kazakh Anna Danilina and Serbian Aleksandra Krunic, fourth seeds in the doubles, in the final four.
The Quebecoise, 22e world racket, lost to Russian Diana Shnaider 7-5, 6-3 in singles on Monday.
Furthermore, Ontario’s Victoria Mboko, eighth seed, will meet in the quarter-finals of the women’s singles with American Madison Keys, second seed, at the end of the evening.
Mboko is playing her first official WTA singles tournament in 2026, and her first since Hong Kong, which she won, in November 2025.
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Maria Bouzkova [LL] – 6:3, 6:1
