Anna Kournikova: Is Tennis Still Even a Part of Her Image?

Anna Kournikova: Athlete or Celebrity?

The French Open women's bracket finished up last weekend and there were no shortage of big stories: The Williams sisters were absent, Maria Sharapova made a run at completing the career Grand Slam, Francesca Schiavone came close to repeating, and Li Na became the first Chinese person, man or woman, to win one of tennis's majors.

So women's tennis is doing just fine without one of its former budding superstars, Anna Kournikova.

And Kournikova, who turned 30 years old today, is certainly doing fine without women's tennis.

She's a frequent magazine cover girl, been the face of a clothing line, appeared in music videos, dates a music star, and certainly isn't hurting financially.

She's a celebrity now, whether it's for her business ventures, personal life, modeling—but not a "professional athlete," at least not in the way we consider Tiger Woods, Tom Brady or Serena Williams.

You may look at that trio (Tiger, Brady, Sharapova) and think, "They also model or do advertisements and have business ventures that may or may not have anything to do with sports."

But they are still central figures in their sports and have been for at least a decade. That can't be said about Kournikova, who has zero WTA singles titles and has not even competed in a Grand Slam event since 2003.

There's nothing wrong with her trading in her sports image for a celebrity image, especially if that's what she wanted to do or was forced to because of injury.

But even if Kournikova still occasionally hits the court for a doubles match or exhibition, saying Kournikova is sports figure is sort of like saying Mike Tyson is still a boxer because he jacked Zack Galifianakis in the face during The Hangover.

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