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The Post Chronicle™ Sports Anna Kournikova was, as the saying goes, "all things to all people" during her reign as the most photographed and marketed female in Tennis.
It's almost a decade later and the Kournikova template is still being upgraded. Today there are two graceful blonde bombshells that hit a ball with such severe force that they usually accompany it with a guttural yell. Call them Kournikova 2.0. As with their predecessor, their origins are in the former Eastern bloc and both were uprooted and moved to the United States as children to work under the tutelage of the now legendary Nick Bollettieri at his Florida tennis academy. Maria Sharapova is young, beautiful, rich, successful and Russian. Oh, she's not the first Russian but she is the first-ever Russian tennis player to top the WTA ratings. She was recently awarded a top sports title in Russia. Nevertheless, she says she feels like a true Russian. "Even in the U.S. I feel like a Russian," she said upon her arrival in Moscow this month, according to published reports. Sharapova, with her top-model looks and first place in the WTA rating, got over $18 million in advertising contracts after winning Wimbledon in 2004. By all accounts she has become the biggest earner in all of women's sports. Sharapova will never become another Anna Kournikova from a marketing perspective, says Shamil Tarpishchev, the president of the Russian Tennis Federation who told reporters last Friday that Sharapova will not follow in the footsteps of Anna Kournikova and exchange sport for advertising contracts and show business.
"Never. She is bent on results," Tarpishchev said answering a reporter's question about Sharapova's future, according to published reports.
At 16, the German-born Czech rejects the suggestion she is just another marketing man's dream, though all one has to do is get a good look at her to realize that she assuredly is, and is determined to make her mark through her tennis achievments. She respects Sharapova's achievements but, in Vaidisova's wonder-filled eyes, the world No.1, who is two years her senior, is destined to be just another opponent to beat rather than emulate. Tennis-wise, Vaidisova is not breaking new ground at the age of 16. At a comparable age, for example, Martina Hingis was world No.1 and had won the 1997 Australian Open. However, Vaidisova's progress compares favorably with others currently on the circuit. Sharapova was only ranked 34th in the world at 16 with one title to her name. The first Battle of the Bollitierri Babes has yet to take place on court but it's clearly only a matter of time.
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Kournikova has never won a singles title but still profited mightily from a fortune reported to be in excess of $50 million. 
Sharapova speaks Russian with an accent, much to the dismay of some of her countryman, but what would you expect from someone who was taken out of Russia as a small child and spent most of her life in an English-speaking country from the West. 
Nicole Vaidisova possesses all the attributes to tread down the same path. 