The Russian Anna in tennis who gets the most attention is Anna Kournikova, but there is another Anna from Russia whose tennis is on the same level, whose looks are more than pleasant, and whose story is more inspiring. Anna Chakvetadze has been a strong presence on the tennis season these past few years, and worked through much adversity during her childhood to make the pro circuit.

After a few years of struggling to make her mark at the professional level, Anna adjusted to the professional life and game in 2006. She capped the year off with titles in Moscow and Guangzhou (China). To keep herself grounded and maintain her strong family ties, she spends a lot of time with her family.

Having your family nearby can be a great thing for such a young talent, especially when the tour can be so demanding with travel and photo shoots.

The 2007 tennis year was the best of Anna’s career. She aced her return of serve, one of the strongest in tennis, and reached a career-high ranking of number five in the world. Having made the semifinals at the US Open, this was her best grand slam result to date.

While Anna was on top of the world, things changed at the end of 2007. In December of that year, her home was attacked by robbers and she was literally tied up with a gun held to her. The burglars seriously beat her father as well, and over $300,000 in things were taken from her home. Like anyone else who might experience this, the event had a very serious impact on Chakvetadze’s emotional state.

2008 was a struggle to say the least. Anna tried focusing on tennis and living life, but the nerves of steel that brought her to #5 quickly dissipated. Many tennis fans go out of their way to show support to Anna and try and lift her spirits and belief, which has not gone unnoticed by Chakvetadze.

In 2009, Chakvetadze is still fighting as hard as she can to restore her spirit and bring herself back to her previous state. While this will be a difficult task to say the least, the New York crowd at the US Open is well aware of her struggles, and will be behind her in its desire to see her return to her 2007 form.

No matter how she does from here, all she can do is fight. Having been a fighter all of her life, there’s no doubt that she’ll continue to do so.

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