Kournikova still loved and still hated

It has been five years since Anna Kournikova’s last Women’s Tennis Association match, and “Annamania” has cooled a bit. But the sport’s all-time pin-up cover girl remains an attraction and a topic of conversation.

Three weeks before the start of the Olympics in Beijing, her picture adorns the cover of SI China even though she has nothing to do with the games.

This is one reason she also remains the girl a lot of people love to hate.

A pop culture phenomenon since she turned pro in 1995 at age 14, Kournikova combined blatant, bountiful sex appeal with a modicum of talent. She became a marketing empire unto herself, not to mention the object of desire for a generation of young men. She was rich and famous and beautiful, and she also played a little tennis.

She played enough tennis, in fact, to have to retire from the pro circuit at 22 because of back problems. But she made an impact, including ticking people off. She is among the most polarizing figures in sports history. To this day, her critics despise her and everything she purportedly stands for. They hate the hype and the headlines, the alleged triumph of style over substance, how she picked the glitz and glamour over the serves and volleys.

Even fellow athletes have chimed in. Pro golfer and part-time model Kim Hall recently told the Los Angeles Times she doesn’t want to be known as “another Kournikova.” Ouch.

Good or bad, she has become part of the vernacular. She is still a name, and people want to see her, and they can. Kournikova is here with the St. Louis Aces for a WorldTeam Tennis match Wednesday night against the Washington Kastles.

Oh, and one of the Kastles’ players is Justin Gimelstob.

Last month, Gimelstob, a colorful tennis commentator and columnist, went on “The Junkies” radio show on WJFK (FM-106.7) and spoke for the legion of Anna-bashers by aiming a volley of incendiary comments at Kournikova. This, in itself, was not unusual for Gimelstob. As a columnist for SI.com, he had taken his shots before.

“I’m disappointed someone with so much talent sold out to fame and fortune,” he wrote in 2005, illuminating the popular notion.

The difference this time was Gimelstob made it personal. He even (kiddingly, it is presumed) threatened to hurt Kournikova physically. For good measure, he made a complimentary reference to Nicole Vaidisova’s anatomy and called a couple of French players “sexpots.”

Outrage ensued. Tennis legend and WTT co-founder Billie Jean King chided Gimelstob and suspended him for a game. The Tennis Channel, for whom Gimelstob does commentary, let him work on its Wimbledon telecasts but apologized on its Web site and asked Gimelstob to donate to the Women’s Sports Foundation.

Duly chastened, Gimelstob apologized. He said there was “no excuse” for his actions, he was “extremely disappointed in himself” and he hoped his “heartfelt remorse can begin to heal any wounds I have caused.”

The healing did not begin. The U.S. Tennis Association said Gimelstob’s comments were “derogatory and demeaning to female tennis players and to women in general” and canceled a series of commercials of him promoting the U.S. Open Series.

That prompted yet another mea culpa from Gimelstob.

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