Kournikova Has Look, but Not the Dedication

NEW YORK —  Not that many tried, but there was no escaping Anna Kournikova at the U.S. Open.

Whether it was women’s doubles with Jennifer Capriati, mixed doubles with childhood friend Max Mirnyi of Belarus or singles, where the 12th-seeded Kournikova was bounced by unheralded Justine Henin of Belgium in the third round, the fetching Russian seemed to always be playing a featured match on a stadium court.

On television, of course.

That would not be unusual for Pete Sampras, who has won a record 13 Grand Slam singles championships, or Martina Hingis, who has been ranked No. 1 for most of the last four years.

But Kournikova has not won a WTA tour event, much less a Grand Slam championship. She has not been ranked higher than ninth, a position she held for all of four weeks last winter.

Still, the cameras--and the fans--follow her everywhere.

While Kournikova was losing to Henin in Arthur Ashe Stadium on a Saturday afternoon, second-seeded Lindsay Davenport, the champion here two years ago, was playing Tamarine Tanasugarn of Thailand in the much smaller Louis Armstrong Stadium.

Not once did CBS cut away to Davenport’s match.

“She likes her look; everybody likes her look,” Henin said after winning that day. “But I am not here to do cinema.”

Kournikova, often snippy with reporters, insists that she’s not either. She says she is focused on improving her game.

She seems weary of the attention, even as she courts it.

It was laughable when Kournikova, in response to a reporter’s suggestion that her tennis career might be better served if she curtailed her outside activities, said after the Henin match, “I don’t have any outside interests.”

You mean, other than the magazine-cover photo shoots, the cheeky sports-bra advertising campaign, the Kournikova calendar, the endorsements that make her the world’s highest-paid female athlete, the Web sites and the growing list of male friends?

Long chummy with Sergei Federov of the Detroit Red Wings, “the world’s most photographed woman” has also been linked to another Russian hockey player, Pavel Bure of the Florida Panthers, and ATP Tour players Mark Philippoussis of Australia and Nicolas Lapentti of Ecuador.

“I don’t have outside interests,” she repeated.

Kournikova, 19, has shown great promise on the court, with victories over Grand Slam tournament winners Steffi Graf, Monica Seles, Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario, Hingis and Davenport, all of whom reached No. 1. With Hingis--they called themselves the Spice Girls--she won the doubles title at the Australian Open and the Chase Championships in 1999.

“I know that I can play well,” she said. “I’ve shown it before. I’ve beat a lot of players--all five No. 1s in the last 10 to 15 years.”

Kournikova, though, has not advanced beyond the round of 16 in a Grand Slam event since reaching the semifinals at Wimbledon three years ago.

With her powerful forehand and quickness, she seems capable of so much more.

“She’s just not willing to get into the trenches,” said Martina Navratilova, who combined with Sanchez-Vicario to beat Kournikova and Capriati in a second-round doubles match. “She doesn’t need to.

“It’s akin to a kid that has rich parents. They really don’t have the motivation. I don’t think she’s got the motivation. I haven’t seen it yet. She’s got the talent. I mean, she has good hands, got the legs-- I don’t mean looks-wise, I mean speed-wise. She has the ability, but I don’t think she’s got the hunger, at least not now.

“She may get it. Maybe I’ll [tick] her off enough with these comments to get her going. I doubt it. I think it will take more than that, some soul-searching. She has a lot more ability than she’s shown.”

The cameras don’t lie.

SHOP TILL YOU DROP

Damir Dokic, the out-of-control father of fourth-round loser Jelena Dokic of Australia, couldn’t resist a parting shot before leaving town.

Dokic, barred from the grounds of the National Tennis Center after a tirade that began when he objected to the price of a $10 piece of salmon in the players’ lounge, told the New York Post he couldn’t wait to get out of the city.

“I’m never coming back to this place--[it’s] too dirty and too communist,” he railed. “New York is a dirty, bad-smelling place, but it’s good for shopping.”

PASSING SHOTS

Vincent Spadea, asked where he was headed next after his first-round loss to Todd Martin at the U.S. Open dropped his record for the year to 2-24, told the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel: “Burger King drive-thru. For an application, not a meal.” Actually, he’s going to the Olympics. Spadea, who ended an ATP Tour-record 21-match losing streak with a first-round victory at Wimbledon, was named to the U.S. team Saturday as the replacement for Andre Agassi, who withdrew for personal reasons. Spadea, ranked as high as 19th last year, has fallen to 119th.

Navratilova, on Jelena Dokic: “I see fear in her eyes when she looks up at her father during the match. She’s afraid of failing. You can’t play tennis in that environment. . . . I understand they’re very close and all that, but she needs to get herself a good coach and play for the joy of playing rather than trying to please somebody or, worse yet, be in fear of them.”

Racket Abuse Put to Good Use: Martin said the racket he used in his stirring, late-night victory over Carlos Moya of Spain in the round of 16 at the U.S. Open, left cracked and mangled when he spiked it onto the court at match’s end early Wednesday morning, will be auctioned at a charity event next month in his hometown of Lansing, Mich. “Last year, after I beat [Greg] Rusedski,” Martin said of a similar late-night, five-set thriller, “I threw my racket into the crowd. I wasn’t going to do that again.” This wasn’t the first time he’d spiked a racket. “Actually, I spiked three at Wimbledon in practice this year,” he said, “but they weren’t out of the same emotion.”

Said Alexandra Stevenson, who is 9-22 this year and has not advanced beyond the second round of a Grand Slam tournament since reaching the semifinals last year at Wimbledon, after her first-round loss to Mary Pierce at the U.S. Open: “It may take another year or two years, but I will be sitting here on Sunday, the final day, saying, ‘Hello, remember the year back when I lost in the first round?’ I will win the U.S. Open one day.”