The reclusive life of Anna Kournikova who withdrew from the spotlight after retiring age 21 to live a quiet life with Enrique Iglesias – after it was revealed she is pregnant with fourth child at 44

It was revealed this week that former tennis ace Anna Kournikova is set to welcome her fourth child with her partner Enrique Iglesias.

But despite once being one of the most photographed women in the world, Anna, 44, has lived a largely reclusive life since retiring at the tender age of 21.

The rarely-seen ex-sports star lives in a Miami mansion which boasts a 16ft wall to keep out an unwanted eyes with Enrique and their three children, twins Lucy and Nicholas, seven, and their daughter Mary, five. 

The couple, who met on the set of the hitmaker’s music video for his 2001 single Escape, have kept a very low profile in recent years. 

Anna, who is said to be half way through her pregnancy, sparked concern when she was pictured in a wheelchair in January in her first public appearance in two years.

She has more recently been seen running her children to martial arts in Miami, squashing fears of any lingering health issues just a few weeks ago.

The rarely-seen ex-sports star lives in a Miami mansion which boasts a 16ft wall to keep out an unwanted eyes with her husband and their three children, twins Lucy and Nicholas, seven, and their daughter Mary, five 

She has more recently been seen running her children to martial arts in Miami, squashing fears of any lingering health issues just a few weeks ago

While Enrique, 50, has been performing to his adoring fans on tour, tennis fans are only granted rare glimpses of Anna.

When she was seen in a wheelchair in January, she was out with her family at Bal Harbour, a luxurious shopping center in Miami.

She was pictured wearing an orthopedic boot on her foot, suggesting she had suffered a recent injury but she appeared to have a clear bill of health as she surfaced out-and-about in the SoFlo neighborhood in early August.

At the height of her fame, Anna was a magnet for both the paparazzi and ignorant jibes about the perceived disparity between her looks and her talent.

The pictures that surfaced of Anna using a wheelchair said more about the former tennis star than a thousand glossy photoshoots ever could.

They offered a poignant reminder of the injury struggles that forced Anna, who reached the Wimbledon semi-finals in 1997 and achieved a career-high ranking of No 8 in the world, to call time on her career aged 21. 

The first photos of Anna to emerge in more than two years, which showed her wearing an orthopaedic boot while accompanied by her two young daughters, also told the story of a woman whose life has undergone a sea of change in the years since she departed the sporting stage.

Offering a portrait of the once teenage prodigy as a mother and also, by virtue of their very rarity, a nod to the more private, family centred life the reclusive Russian has enjoyed in the years since the flashbulbs faded.

A young Anna is seen with her partner, Enrique Iglesias. The couple, whose marital status is unclear, have been together since 2001 and have three children

Anna models an Adidas outfit during a 2003 photoshoot in Key Biscayne, Florida. A chronic back problem forced her to retire later the same year

Anna’s personal life, once the focus of endless media speculation – to the point where she famously told Sports Illustrated, ‘Every country I visit, I have a different boyfriend and I kiss them all’ – has long since ceased to be the subject of tabloid tittle-tattle.

The Russian has been in a relationship with the Spanish singer since 2001, although the couple’s marital status – ‘We haven’t gotten married in public, but that doesn’t mean we are not married,’ he remarked cryptically two years ago – remains an enduring mystery. 

Anna’s desire for privacy, evident in the 16 ft walls that surround the family’s home, is not merely a reaction to an early life lived before the global gaze. 

In 2005, two years after her retirement, she was targeted by a stalker, William Lepeska, who swam naked across Biscayne Bay towards her house in the hope that she would save him from drowning.

In the event, Lepeska, who was issued with a permanent restraining order requiring him to stay at least 1,000 ft away from Kournikova, swam to the wrong house. 

‘I was absolutely shocked and fearful and I was very much concerned for my safety,’ said Kournikova, who hired bodyguards and ramped up security at her home following the incident. 

‘It was very frightening and scary, just knowing there is someone out there who’s obsessive.’

Given the questionable manner in which she was portrayed during her teenage years – even Sports Illustrated dubbed her a ‘teen sexpot’ at the age of 16 – there was a depressing sense of inevitability about the incident. 

By the time she was voted the world’s sexiest woman by the men’s lifestyle magazine FHM in 2002, Anna had already acquired notoriety by featuring in a sports bra ad that featured the tagline: ‘Only the ball should bounce.’ 

She even inspired a computer virus, with an e-mail attachment purporting to bear her image spreading like wildfire in early 2001, famously earning her a mention in the penultimate season of Friends the following year. 

Anna, voted the world’s sexiest woman by the men’s lifestyle magazine FHM in 2002, infamously fronted a sports bra campaign for Berlei 

Anna is seen in action at Wimbledon in 1997, the year she went on to make the semi-finals. It was to prove her best finish at a grand slam event

Anna models the Adidas US Open tennis outfit in May 2001. At the height of her career she achieved a top-ten ranking and reached a major semi-final

Yet the woeful manner in which she was portrayed did not prevent Anna from becoming the world’s highest-paid female athlete, and nor did it stop her from compiling a record that would be the envy of most players.

In addition to a top-ten ranking and a major semi-final, Anna twice won the Australian Open women’s doubles alongside fellow prodigy Martina Hingis, and was a fixture in the latter stages of grand slam doubles events in the late 90s and early noughties.

A quarter-finalist or better in women’s and mixed doubles at each of the four majors, she contested finals at the French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open and attained the world No 1 ranking in doubles in 1999.

Barely less significant was her influence on the generation of Russian players that followed her. Within a year of her retirement, Maria Sharapova, Svetlana Kuznetsova and Anastasia Myskina had all won grand slam titles, and in the years since Russian players have been a fixture at the top end of the sport.

Kuznetsova, a French and US Open champion and former world No 2, has no illusions about the extent of Kournikova’s influence, insisting that her compatriot was responsible for putting Russian tennis on the map.

‘She brought really big popularity to Russian tennis, women’s tennis,’ Kuznetsova said in 2017. ‘Everyone after her was just after her. 

In 2005, two years after her retirement, Anna – seen here five years earlier – was targeted by a stalker, William Lepeska, who swam naked across Biscayne Bay towards her house

Anna is pictured at a film premiere in New York in 2003. Now 43, she has become an increasingly reclusive figure since starting a family in December 2017

‘I always defend her when they say, ‘Oh, she never won a tournament.’ So what? She was a top-10 player. It’s not just about winning tournaments. She was a great image for the game, not only for Russia but for tennis all over the world.

‘Everybody was saying she never won a tournament. I’m like OK, have you been to top 10? Have you ever held a racquet? I’m always surprised people give these opinions without achieving anything in their life. 

‘I think she was great.’

While not all would go so far, Kournikova’s sporting and cultural significance is inestimably greater than many have suggested.