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Anna Kournikova attends the Enrique Iglesias concert at the AT&T Center on August 23, 2012 in San Antonio, Texas© Getty

Anna Kournikova's 'excruciating' health problems in her own words

The Russian model and former tennis star was recently seen for the first time in two years utilizing a wheelchair

Beatriz Colon
Beatriz Colon - New York
New York WriterNew York
January 29, 2025
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Anna Kournikova has faced some difficult health challenges through the years.

Most recently, the former tennis star was seen for the first time in public in two years, taking a stroll through Miami with her children — who she shares with longtime love Enrique Iglesias — in a wheelchair.

Though it remains unclear what happened to the Russian novel, she was also seen wearing a medical boot on one of her legs.

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Back in 2003, it was back-to-back injuries that caused her to hang up her racket for good, retiring from tennis when she was only 21 years old.

In an interview with The Guardian shortly before her retirement, she noted: "Basically, I've had an injury nearly every single year," of her professional tennis career.

She recalled: "In '97 I had a stress fracture and was out for three months. In '98 I had a torn ligament in my thumb and was out for three months; in '99 I had another stress fracture for three months. In 2001 I didn't basically play the whole year."

Anna Kournikova from Russia plays a double handed backhand return to Paula Hermida of Spain during their Junior Girls Singles First Round match at the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championship on 3rd July 1995 at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, London, England© Getty Images
Anna playing Wimbledon in 1995

Her then-agent Phil de Picciotto, per The Guardian, also explained to Observer Sports at the time that her career was in a "state of limbo" and she did not have a coach overseeing her, because she wasn't "playing consistently at all as a result of her back and the need for physiotherapy and lots of rest."

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Addressing her back trouble, which was primarily throughout her lower back and lumbar-sacral region, Phil further shared: "It could be hereditary or training at a young age or too much tennis or bad luck," adding: "They just don't know exactly."

Anna Kournikova in action during the Ladies' Invitation match with partner Switzerland's Martina Hingis against USA's Tracy Austin and Kathy Rinaldi-Stunkel, Wimbledon, 2010© Getty
The model made a brief return to tennis in 2010

Years after her early retirement, in 2011, Anna reflected on it in a conversation with People, confessing: "I never planned or thought that was going to be it."

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Tennis player Anna Kournikova and singer Enrique Iglesias leave Big Pink restaurant during the early morning hours on June 16, 2006 in Miami, Florida.© Getty Images
She and Enrique have been together since 2001

"My back really forced me to stop. It got so bad; I couldn't tie my shoes, literally. I would be in excruciating pain. I had been doing six to eight hours [of training] every day since I was 5 years old," she recalled.

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Anna Kournikova and Enrique Iglesias' family time with three children in a photo shared on Instagram© Instagram
The couple shares three children

She further shared: "It was very interesting to me to stop playing and to figure out, 'Who am I without tennis?' It was very difficult and scary as hell."

th "I did everything from therapy to 10-hour walks on the beach to discover, and think, and try new things," she added, and noted that Enrique, who she met and started dating around the time that she retired, was a crucial part of her "support system" that had "helped me figure out who I am."

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