Anna Sergeyevna Kournikova

Early life
Anna was born in Moscow, Soviet Union, on June 7, 1981. Her father, Sergei Kournikov, was 20 at the time. Sergei, a former Greco-Roman wrestling champion, had earned a Ph.D. and was a professor at the University of Physical Culture and Sport in Moscow. As of 2001, he was still a part-time martial arts instructor there. Her mother Alla, who was 18 when Anna was born, had been a 400-meter runner.
Sergei said: "We were young and we liked the clean, physical life, so Anna was in a good environment for sport from the beginning." The family name is spelled in Russian without an "o", so a direct translation would be "Kurnikov", and it is sometimes written that way. But it is "Kournikov", so the family chose that as their English spelling.