2nd Round
Anna Kournikova beaten by Nicole Pratt
7:6, 1:6, 3:6
July 31, 2001
"Nicole is a player that
always fights to the end. I just had a little difficulty finishing it off,"
Kournikova said after the loss. "She's a tough player to play first match
after five months. She makes you play."
Kournikova added, "She does not give you a single free point, so I had to
really work. I gave it my all. It was hard finishing points because the balls
kept coming back."
When asked how her foot felt, she responded, "I had no real pain, but it's
really sore. When I was on the court, I really didn't think about it. I was just
really happy to be out there. It's a great feeling to be back on the court and
to be moving again.
"For the first time I played,
it was not so bad," she said. "I was fresher in the first set and had
difficulty finishing it off. She is a tough player. She doesn't give you any
free points. The ball just keeps coming back."
Kournikova's game wasn't affected
by the injury or her rumored marriage to hockey player Sergei Fedorov.
"Those are just false rumors,"
Kournikova said of published reports in England she had married the Detroit Red
Wings star. "The British tabloids make stuff up."
"Every time, every month you
are waiting and waiting," she said after Tuesday's defeat. "It got a
little frustrating. I was on the court during the French Open practising in
London but then I felt discomfort in a different place."
"I had to stop again and was in a cast for another three or four weeks
because the foot was inactive for so long. I hope that doesn't happen this time.
I have to be really careful."
Kournikova also denied a British tabloid report that she was recently married to
ice hockey star Sergei Fedorov.
"I don't need to justify every single rumour from the tabloids," said
the 20-year-old Russian starlet.
"If I did, I wouldn't have any time to concentrate on my tennis and that's
what you guys say I need to concentrate on. I've always been doing that but I'm
trying to prove it you. So I'm not going to justify any false rumours."
"Just because some British tabloid makes something up doesn't mean it's true," said Kournikova.
No ring was visible to the La
Costa crowd. If, indeed, Kournikova had a ring suspended from the necklace, the
ring was below the neckline of her red dress.
Asked about reaching for her throat, Kournikova
said she doesn't know why she does it. "I just do it automatically,"
she said. "I like jewelry."
"I had no real pain tonight but it's really sore right now,"
Kournikova said. "But it was just a great feeling to be out on court moving
again even though I wasn't moving perfectly sometimes. I was making such giant
steps that I had no rhythm."
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