The 20-year-old Russian expressed her immediate disappointment at missing out on the Canadian Open. "I am extremely disappointed that I will be missing out on the inaugural Rogers AT&T Cup," said Kournikova. "Toronto is one of the favorite stops on the tour for the players and I am sorry to be missing it." The injury in her left foot flared up again last week in San Diego where Kournikova was playing her first tournament in more than five months. She lost in the second round of singles but reached the finals in doubles with Martina Hingis "It is unfortunate that Anna will not be competing in Toronto, but we wish her a complete recovery," said tournament director Jane Wynne. No details were immediately forthcoming as to the seriousness of the reoccurrence of the injury.

Hingis and Kournikova, commonly known to the rest of the tennis world as the spice girls, were made to grind out a result in their semifinal late Saturday afternoon; using their almost unsurpassable team spirit to help pull them through. The spice girls ousted the dangerous team of Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario and Jennifer Capriati in a thrilling match on Stadium Court 6-2, 5-7, 6-3. Having cruised the first set 6-2 in just 22 minutes, their sleepy looking opponents received a much needed wake up call and launched a timely fightback to wrestle the second set from Hingis and Kournikova 7-5. The spice girls will face either 2nd seeds Cara Black and Elena Likhovtseva, or the 4th seeded team of Kim Clijsters and Ai Sugiyama in the final. The match to decide their opponents will follow the 2nd singles semifinal on stadium court later this evening.

The pair ousted Alexandra Fusai of France and Italy’s Rita Grande 6-3, 7-6 (7-1) to book themselves a place in the semifinal. As fans packed the temporary stands to capacity, Hingis and Kournikova took swept into an early 4-1 lead on their way to winning the first set. In the second set, each player held serve until 5-5 when Kournikova and Hingis broke Fusai's serve to take a 6-5 lead. But as Kournikova served for the match, Fusai and Grande broke back to force a tiebreak. After losing the first point of the tiebreaker, Hingis and Kournikova reeled off seven straight points to win the match. The doubles effort was earlier aided when Hingis stormed into the quarterfinals of the singles competition with a devastatingly good 6-1, 6-3 win over American Alexandra Stevenson in just 54 minutes. That quickfire win for Hingis enabled the Swiss Miss to take to the courts again just a few hours later and put in a solid performance with Kournikova. Kournikova and Hingis will face the winners of the Capriati/Sanchez-Vicario and Garbin/Husarova quarterfinal match. But the spice girls will have to wait until the match is played tomorrow before learning which pairing they will be up against next.

"I’m so excited to be back playing and competing every day," Kournikova said in a statement. "I love tennis, this is what I do and I can’t wait to be on the court next week." Seeded ninth, Kournikova will receive a bye and play the winner of the match between Australia's Nicole Pratt and Bulgaria's Pavlina Nola. She could face fifth seed Kim Clijsters, a finalist in this year's French Open, in the third round.Kournikova is also reported to be playing in the doubles event next week. The draw for the doubles event will be made on Sunday. The 20-year-old Russian hasn’t played a tournament on the WTA Tour since she sustained an injury at the Gaz de France in Paris in February. Early in June Kournikova attempted a comeback on a grass court exhibition prior to Wimbledon but was forced to withdraw as the foot injury hadn’t healed sufficiently. Soon after she was forced to pull out of Wimbledon. Kournikova is also scheduled to appear at the Estyle.com Classic in Los Angeles in less than a fortnight, and a week later the Canadian Open in Toronto.

The 20-year-old Russian, who has been subject to intense speculation regarding her marital status over the past few days, last played a competitive match back in February at the Gaz de France in Paris.Kournikova’s father Sergei confirmed his daughter had returned to training this week, he said: "Anna is in Florida at the moment and has begun training." While organizers of the Acura Classic have received no official word from Kournikova’s camp that she will be playing San Diego next week, they remain optimistic no news is good news. "We plan to announce the draw this Friday afternoon," Roberta Tsang a spokesperson for the Acura Classic told AnnaK.org on Thursday. "As far as I know Anna is entered and coming to our tournament." All eyes will now be on the draw tomorrow afternoon to see if Kournikova’s name appears on the draw sheet.

The sun claims to have the WORLD EXCUSIVE on the marriage and has donated their entire frontpage to revealing the story. The paper reports that: "Just five guests witnessed the register office ceremony, which will break the hearts of millions of her male fans." The British tabloid says Anna and Sergei sneaked back to Russia to get married during Wimbledon which she withdrew from with injury. Besotted Sergei was so thrilled after marrying sexy Anna that he told a close friend: "It was great — we exchanged WOWS." And his pal last night told The Sun: "Sergei is totally smitten. They are completely in love." His pal said: "It was a very quiet ceremony — only both sets of parents and Sergei’s brother attended. "They hired the register office for a whole day so no one would see them. "It had to be kept under wraps because they are the most famous couple in Russia and it would have been worldwide news very quickly." The pair got engaged at Wimbledon 1999 shortly after Anna turned 18. While a story earlier this year said Kournikova had promised to wed Fedorov if she were to win Wimbledon this year. Sergei's friend added: "Anna did not want to be a teen bride so they waited until her 20th birthday. They got married during Wimbledon, when Anna was injured. She thought it would be a good time to avoid publicity." Sergei's mum Natalia said: "It was a lovely ceremony. I am very happy to be Anna’s mother-in-law." Natalia, who lives in her son's £1.5million Detroit mansion, added: "Anna and Sergei did not take a honeymoon. They both work hard. After the wedding they went home to Miami and are practicing their sports." If this story is indeed accurate and true then of course everyone associated with the club wishes both Sergei and Anna absolute happiness together.

Anna Kournikova is featured on the cover of the September issue of FHM Magazine Australia. The magazine has published pictures from Anna's official 2002 calendar, alongside an interview with the tennis star. Click here to jump directly to the photo community and to browse all the photos. You won't be surprised when we say Anna looks as stunning as ever.

In article published earlier it seemed there was real hope Anna might make a return to tennis ahead of the US Open."We are thrilled to have Anna back," said Tournament Director Peter Tatum. "She has posted increasingly better results each year at Stanford. In 1999, she was a quarterfinalist. And last year, she reached the semifinals before losing to Venus Williams. We'd love her first tournament win to be at the Bank of the West Classic."Unfortunately Peter Tutum was "thrilled to have Anna back" on June 25 and not yesterday as was originally reported.So where does Anna’s participation in the event stand officially? Well the 20-year-old remains penciled in to play the Stanford tournament along with the Acura Classic, and the Canadian Open. Whether she will participate in any or all these events will obviously depend on whether she has recovered from injury. And the answer to that question remains largely unanswered.Jane Wynne, tournament director of the Rogers AT&T Cup, said yesterday: "We often don't hear until the very last minute."So the wait for any official word on the matter could go on for some days yet.

"We still have a few days to go so I'm crossing all my fingers," said Jane Wynne, tournament director of the Rogers AT&T Cup, Aug. 11-19 at the National Tennis Centre at York University. Kournikova is ranked 13th, behind Martina Hingis, Jennifer Capriati, Lindsay Davenport and Justine Henin, who will all participate. Henin lost the Wimbledon final to Venus Williams last Sunday.Missing from the list is Venus Williams. Her sister, Serena, ranked eighth in the world, has entered. According to tournament organizers, the unwritten rule of Richard Williams, Venus and Serena's father, is to not have both sisters play in the same tournament, unless it's a major.There’s a big incentive for Kournikova to be fit, said Wynne, the AT&T cup is one of the biggest tournaments on the annual tour calendar. ."We're the biggest event, the only Tier 1 event, between Wimbledon and the U.S. Open," Wynne said. But doubts reign over Kournikova’s fitness and Wynne is understandably concerned the Russian might miss Canada’s biggest tournament."The only player who is somewhat doubtful is Anna," Wynne said. "But she will be desperate to get some matches in (before the U.S. Open)."We often don't hear until the very last minute," Wynne said. "But if she's not even practising, they might give us a little notice."

Austrian Barbara Schett is officially the best looking female tennis player according to a survey carried out by Ace Tennis Magazine. With Schett taking top spot, fan favorite Anna Kournikova was left to settle for 2nd position in the poll. Players and coaches helped compile the list of the ten best-looking women on the circuit. Ace Tennis editor Dominic Bliss said of Kournikova: "Most fans would agree she has a body to die for, but some people say her face is a bit pudgy and her looks are too Barbie doll. "She is a great looking girl, but there are a lot of players who are more eye-catching than her." Another surprise of this poll was the fact Swiss Miss Martina Hingis is left propping up the list in 10th position. The final results were as follows:
1. Barbara Schett, 2. Anna Kournikova, 3. Miroslava Vavrinec, 4. Lina Krasnoroutskaya, 5. Elena Dementieva, 6. Chanda Rubin, 7. Anke Huber, 8. Jana Kandarr, 9. Olga Barabanschikova, 10. Martina Hingis.

With just over a week to go before the start of Wimbledon, 20 year-old Russian star Anna Kournikova is still battling hard to be fit in time to play her favorite Grand Slam. Her announced withdrawal from Eastbourne yesterday was clearly a blow to both her chances of playing, and of competing at all if proven fit. Though most would be glad just to see Kournikova back on court again, even if it meant an early Wimbledon exit for the Russian. And the battle is not completely lost yet. Her management team are keen to stress that they’re making their judgements on a week-to-week basis and that Kournikova is still practicing on grass in the hope that she might be fit. A statement released by her management company said Kournikova has begun practicing on grass but that her foot was not yet sufficiently healed to allow her to compete in next week's tournament in the south coast seaside town. "At this point, the doctors have said her return to competition is week-to-week," said Octagon's Phil de Picciotto.