KEY BISCAYNE, Fla. -- Anna Kournikova, 16 and a potential subject of male admirers for years to come, played in the final of a major pro tournament Saturday for the first time. She lost to Venus Williams, 17, who won a tournament of this magnitude for the first time.
It is well-documented that Kournikova is all too aware she is probably the first women's tennis sex symbol since Gabriela Sabatini. The stories are out there that Kournikova believes few men will be good enough. As she explains to Sports Illustrated this week in a story explaining how she casually dismisses the admirers she must constantly encounter, "It's like a menu: They can look, but they can't afford it."
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Kournikova's brash statements make one wonder what to expect next from the young star. (Reuters)
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Here is one suggestion for Kournikova's perfect male match, made obvious by her brutally honest and politically incorrect statements after Williams beat her 2-6, 6-4, 6-1 in the Lipton Championships women's final: Reggie White.
They might form the most unlikely pair at first glance. When it comes to speaking their mind no matter the message, each seems to take it to a new level in front of an audience.
Remember, Kournikova sustained a dramatic turn while she lost to Williams. She dominated the first set, played competitively while losing the second, was annihilated in the third. She was up a set and a break and lost the match. She lost it convincingly. She became a walking unforced error, making 53 altogether. Whereas sliced shots and flat, well-placed rallies into the corners ran Williams ragged in the first set, Kournikova was given to routinely hitting returnable shots from beyond the baseline.
THE MATCH WASN'T ANY MORE complicated than that.
"I think I just got a little bit tired physically. But it's good. It shows me that I didn't -- she didn't beat me. I lost. That means I'm better a little bit than her," Kournikova said.
Naturally, Kournikova's statement was the kind left open to challenge. She didn't back down. And even Williams supported her contention.
"I think that usually when people do lose, they beat themselves generally," Williams said. "The story of every match (is) when someone loses, the person makes more errors. When I lose, or when Anna lost today, (she) made more errors than what I did. You have to hit some winners (to win), but you also have to make errors to lose a match."
Here was a gracious deflection of what Kournikova had to say. Not until she was prodded did Kournikova grant that Williams had played a strong match herself.
FACT IS, THESE ARE TWO STREAKY PLAYERS whose games can take on all kinds of pendulum swings during the course of a match. Williams appears to be less immune to these streaks. That's why she's winning more often. That's why she beat the No. 1 player in the world, Martina Hingis, in the semifinal.
However, Kournikova would tell you she lost from being tired from having such a difficult draw, especially when compared to Williams'.
Kournikova has a point. She had to beat Mirjana Lucic, Monica Seles, Conchita Martinez, Lindsay Davenport and Aranxta Sanchez-Vicario in consecutive matches. Williams? The draw took her from a bye, through Tatiana Panova, Olga Barabanschikova, Rita Grande and Silvia Farina before eventually meeting Hingis in the semis.
The issue here: Is Kournikova just completely direct, willing to relay a cold truth? Or is she already over the side of the fence that reads, "Spoiled and Sullen?"
SHE GRANTS THAT PHYSICALLY BEING FIT physically is important. That's harder, she said, if you're on the wrong side of the draw.
"I think, you know, there is a big difference if you play somebody No. 40 in the world and somebody No. 2 (Davenport), No. 9 (Martinez), No. 8 (Sanchez Vicario) in a row, four days in a row. You have to be really concentrated with your mind, first of all," Kournikova said.
She wouldn't back down when challenged on her statement. After all, Williams had to play Hingis in the semis. Kournikova wasn't terribly impressed with that road.
"Well, I think there is a big difference if you go mentally into the first round and you play Lucic, second round you play Seles, third round you play Martinez, fourth round you play Davenport, in the semis you play Sanchez. Venus had first round, I Don't Know... second round, Somebody... third round, Somebody... Fourth round, Somebody," Kournikova said. "Semis you should get a tough player, tough opponent. It happened to be Hingis."
WILLIAMS MIGHT NOT HAVE HAD a tough draw here. But she's been through some tough challenges. The glare upon her at last year's U.S. Open was intense. Some didn't like her outspoken, candid style. Her father accused other players on the women's tour of being racists, an accusation that compromised his daughter. A year older, Williams knows you have to beat those kinds of things and stay consistent on the court.
"I think no matter what, you're going to play matches, people are going to want to win against you," Williams said. "I think it was good she got to play all those players, to have victories over them. In the end, I think (the draw) is insignificant because you just have to play in each round. Sometimes people get on fire and you have to extinguish that, no matter who they are."
Sounds like good advice, brutally direct.
Mike Lurie is a CBS SportsLine staff writer.
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