The famous Russian tennis player Anastasia Myskina is an Honored Master of Sports, the first racket of Russia and the second former racket of the world. Since 1998, her name can be found in the list of the 500 best tennis players in the world, and in 2003 - in the top ten. Anastasia Myskina has won nine WTA singles and two doubles tournaments throughout her sports career. In 2004, she became the winner of the Grand Slam tournament and entered the history of world tennis as the first Russian athlete to win this cup. Since 2007, Anastasia began to try herself as a TV presenter in such programs as “Our Football” and “Tell Me, What’s Wrong?!”
Anastasia Myskina. Biography of the famous athlete: childhood
Beauty, TV presenter, actress, and famous tennis player Anastasia Myskina was born in 1981, on July 8, in Moscow. When she was six years old, Nastya’s parents brought her to the tennis section of the Spartak sports club. That's how she got into big-time sports. Her first coach was Rauza Islanova, the mother of Marat and Dinara Safin. By the way, she had warm and friendly relations with Dinara for many years, which continue to this day. Another Russian tennis celebrity, Lena Dementieva, trained with her here. Nastya’s relationship with her was cooler, because they often had to be rivals and fight for the best places.
The childhood of a famous tennis player
From an early age, Nastya was an ordinary child who did not particularly stand out from her peers. When asked about her future profession, the girl never answered that Anastasia Myskina is a tennis player in the future. In principle, she never thought about becoming an athlete. However, fate, as always, knows everything better than us. Anastasia’s parents were also not athletes, but they both loved active recreation, so they often took tennis rackets out into nature. The girl's mom and dad loved to play tennis outdoors.
Path to glory
In 1998, seventeen-year-old Anastasia Myskina became a member of the Russian national tennis team. A year later, she managed to win her first singles tournament. It was on the island of Sicily, in Palermo. Immediately after this, she was included in the list of the 500 best tennis players on the planet. Over the next 4 years, she confidently walked towards her goal, and in 2003 she was recognized as one of the 10 best tennis players in the world, as well as the 1st racket of the Russian Federation.
In 2004, Anastasia Myskina strengthened her position and won the Grand Slam tournament. This was followed by a victory over her long-time friend Elena Dementieva at the French Open Rolland Garosse, and a few months later she won the Kremlin Cup. This year turned out to be the most successful for her in her entire sports career. Anastasia Myskina became the 2nd racket of the world and officially recognized as the ITF World Champion. Nastya was the only Russian woman awarded this title.
Athlete's career
After Anastasia graduated from school, she immediately became one of those who joined the Russian national team. Then exactly a year later she snatched victory in one of her first singles tournaments in Palermo. Many people envied such success of the young tennis player Anastasia Myskina. Also, the press and most coaches did not attach importance to the girl’s victory and were unable to evaluate it adequately.
At that time, the first star of the tennis court was Anna Kournikova, and it was simply unrealistic to “outdo” her. Especially for such an inexperienced and young girl. Despite this, Nastya set high goals for herself and achieved them flawlessly.
Anastasia never suffered from the particular intrusiveness of journalists. On the one hand, this could upset the girl, but she took only advantages from the situation: no one distracted her from work and she had enough time to train.
In 2003, the biography of Anastasia Myskina as a tennis player was enriched by another significant event. She entered the list of the best rackets in the world. In the same year she was awarded the title of the country's first racket.
2005 was one of the worst years in the athlete’s career. Her intimate photographs were stolen. Because of this, Anastasia had problems working with the team, and over time she refused to work as part of them. Nastya got a job as a television presenter, then she was invited to the position of commentator on a sports channel.
Beginning a career as a presenter
In 2006, during the French Open, Anastasia Myskina took an unpredictable step that stunned everyone - she gave up without a fight. Then she announced that she wanted to end her sports career and was leaving for television as a presenter. She began hosting the sports program “Our Football” on the NTV channel. Two years later, Nastya appeared on Domashny in the program “Tell me what’s wrong?!” This was no longer a sports program, but a real talk show about human relationships.
While helping viewers solve their problems, Nastya herself could not figure out her own. During this period she had two unsuccessful novels. In addition, tennis did not give the young woman peace. She missed her favorite sport and therefore soon went to the NTV-Plus channel as a tennis commentator. Anastasia also took part in the television project “Ice Age,” proving that the tennis player can handle skating on ice.
Biography of Myskina
The future tennis player was born on July 8, 1981 in Moscow.
Her parents always spent their free time actively, so the girl immediately started playing sports. The whole family regularly visited the tennis courts for good leisure time. Anastasia immediately began to show great promise, and her parents took her to the Spartak sports society. Myskina’s first coach was Marat’s mother Safina Rauza Islanova. She instilled in the girl the ability to never give up and play matches to the end. At this time, Anastasia met and became friends with another young athlete, Elena Dementieva. Even head-to-head matches on the court never interfered with their friendship.
After graduating from high school in 1998, Myskina was invited to the Russian national team. The next season she wins her first victory in the tournament. But it does not receive recognition from specialists. Other Russian tennis players eclipse Anastasia in popularity.
The girl continues to train hard and four years later she is among the top ten in this sport in the whole world.
Anastasia considers 2004 to be the best season of her career. And there are certain reasons for this. Myskina wins the first Grand Slam tournament - the French Open. Moreover, before her, such a title had never been won by tennis players from Russia. She also won several tournaments, including the Kremlin Cup. In all the main finals of that season, Anastasia defeated her longtime friend Elena Dementieva. For her successes, Myskina received the title of world champion according to the International Tennis Federation.
However, the following year everything changed. Myskina stopped participating in many competitions due to her mother’s illness, and then completely refused to participate in matches for the Russian national team. And in 2007 she officially announced the end of her sports career.
After this, the girl was invited to work on television. At first it was the “Our Football” channel. Next, the former tennis player took part in the next season of Dancing on Ice and hosted a program on the Domashny channel “Tell me what’s wrong?” And then she was invited to work as a commentator on the NTV Plus Tennis channel.
When the Russian Tennis Federation was looking for a coach for the country’s main team, they remembered Myskina. She joined the coaching staff, and in 2014 became team captain.
Personal life
Nastya Myskina had a serious relationship with Tatar club football player Alexander Stepanov for some time, but this relationship did not result in anything serious. Then she began an affair with the captain of the CSKA team, Kostya Korneev. Here everything was much more serious between the young people, and they planned to get married, but their engagement, due to certain circumstances, fell through.
After some time, Nastya began dating the owner Sergei Mamedov, the son of the Russian Ambassador to Canada. She soon became pregnant and in 2008 gave birth to his son Zhenya. Sergei and Nastya began to live in a civil marriage and were in no hurry to legitimize their relationship. Despite this, the girl gave birth to two more sons, George and Pavel, in 2010 and 2012. The common-law husband of Anastasia Myskina was simply happy, having become the father of three beautiful boys-heroes. The parents of this couple were also happy; their grandchildren grew up and made them happy.
Children of Anastasia Myskina
Being a mother of three young sons is not an easy task. “Being a champion is much easier than raising three sons,” admits the former world tennis champion. For Nastya, children today come first, the most important place, and then her husband. “Let Sergei forgive me, but this is so,” the young mother says cheerfully.
Her boys are about two years apart in age. The eldest Zhenya is already 6, and he attends preparatory classes for school. He understands perfectly well that he is already quite big, since he is going to school soon, and that he is no match for his two younger brothers, but he can fight with them over some toy. In fact, when Zhenya is not at home, Georgy and Pavel divide the property and move everything to their rooms. Evgeniy also plays in the tennis section, although Nastya believes that he should not become a professional tennis player, and that this is not a very good profession for a man.
After the birth of her children, the “three-time” mother realized that in order to stay in shape she needed to go in for sports again: go to the pool, gym, etc. Trainers say that sometimes Anastasia Myskina and her children come to their gym and start doing everything together. It's a pleasure to watch.
Anastasia Myskina: “First - children, then - husband”
— Anastasia, to begin with, I would like to address you not as a TV presenter, but still as a professional athlete. Tennis is not a winter sport, but the Sochi Olympics just ended. Have you watched the competition and what are your impressions? — Of course, I looked, because of the opportunity. Since I was on a business trip, I did not follow the progress of the Games in full. I won’t be original and say that everything that was said about the Olympics abroad is absolutely true. It was simply amazing, I read enthusiastic discussions on the Internet of many tennis players and their coaches. Everyone around, and even more so athletes from different countries, were delighted with what they saw. Many who were there sent me photographs. Therefore, of course, I can only express my admiration for what our organizers have done. — Didn’t you personally want to be present in Sochi? - Probably not. I would like to attend the opening or closing - it is very interesting. And if we talk about competitions, I think I was able to watch them even more on TV, because I covered different channels and many sports with my attention. Something that would not have happened live. So I didn’t really think about my presence at the Olympics. Moreover, at that time I was at a tennis tournament. — So, if we talk about your inner feelings, the world of sports is still not far from you? — Due to the fact that I am now working in the Russian national tennis team in the Federation Cup, every day I communicate with the girls from our team on various issues, sport is not only not far from me now, but very close. — Do you work as a coach? - Yes. Our team has three coaches, and I am one of them now.
Sports have not left the life of Anastasia Myskina.
Now she works for the Russian national tennis team in the Federation Cup. Photo: Natalia Gubernatorova. — I read several of your interviews after you left sports on TV, and many journalists asked you why you didn’t want to work as a coach. You then answered that it was quite difficult - you need to invest a lot of effort in your students, and you are not ready for this. Now, apparently, something has changed? — Those questions concerned whether I was ready to train children and open my own school. That is, to completely immerse yourself in coaching. And, probably, I am still not ready to take a child from the age of six and lead him to a certain age. After all, in the Federation I work with established players who are part of the national team. And this is completely different. Of course, I help someone who is younger with advice if they need it. I enjoy communicating with young girls on the court and collaborating. But my main task as a Federation coach is for the girls to play well for the national team, so that they train in good conditions. This is the main thing for me. — Do you keep in touch with your colleagues and friends - Elena Dementieva and Dinara Safina? — Lena and I were never friends. We just worked in the same business, so the relationship is normal, friendly and working. Of course, it would be strange not to save them after the court, because we went through so much together. Of course, we communicate with Dinara. I actually talk to a lot of girls. With Alena Likhovtseva, for example, we maintain a very close relationship. All the girls are somehow connected with tennis and continue their professional activities. Some work on sports channels, others do something else. I also continue to work on the tennis channel. Therefore, one way or another, we still all intersect and communicate.
In Anastasia Myskina’s new program “Main People” we are talking about children.
Photo: press service materials. — You quickly found yourself on TV and organically entered the project “Tell me what’s wrong?!” Was it easy for you to become a TV presenter? — Thank you very much to producer Natalya Bilan, who believed in me. That I am not just an athlete, but that I can do something outside of sports. The trust they showed me was very pleasant and helped me adapt to my new life. Any athlete has a hard time when he ends his career and cannot find himself. Everything really worked out very smoothly for me: I started working on the sports channel, then smoothly switched to Domashny. I didn’t know much when I came to television, and I learned along the way. And I am very grateful to everyone - the editors, directors, and chief editors with whom I worked. Everyone taught me a little something. I listened to all this with pleasure. Of course, there was criticism, you can’t do without it, but I tried to perceive it correctly. And I am very happy that we have continued our cooperation for five years now. — Now your program is called “Main People” and, it seems to me, you should feel even more confident in it. After all, it is about children, and you are a mother with great experience. — Of course, this program and this topic are very close to me. I draw a lot from it for myself, I tell something from my experience. And when we had expert psychologists, I even often asked them for advice, because everything was interesting to me. After all, children grow up, and you can’t always know everything. After all, I have three children of different ages, and I want to know how we can all get through some age-related crises together. In this regard, I certainly had something to share, and I was just as happy to receive information. “Some women, having given birth to one child, when talking about the second, exclaim almost in horror: “I wish I could cope with one!” And you decided on three. Where did you find the courage? - Courage has nothing to do with it. (Smiles.) It’s difficult to plan anything in life; it so happens that we have three children, and my husband also has an eldest son. Of course, I never thought before that I would be a mother of many children, but it happened, and I’m incredibly happy about it. I can't imagine my life without my sons! - You are alone in the family, you had neither brother nor sister. - Yes. I am alone. But my husband always wanted many children, he talked about it and never hid it. I don’t know where this desire came from. That's how it happened. — How did you manage your maternity capital? This is a pressing question for many? — So far we have not touched maternity capital. But the time will come, and I think it will definitely be useful for children’s education. It’s great that there is such help from the government. — You have three boys, and they were all born two years apart. How do they get along with each other? “They all love each other very much, which, of course, makes me happy.” Of course, they can fight over one particular machine, although there are two more of the same type nearby. But it normal. And so they treat each other very tenderly, reverently and lovingly.
All the sons of Anastasia Myskina were born two years apart.
With Sasha Savelyeva. Photo: Liliya Sharlovskaya. — The expression “the house is upside down,” if all three are playing, does that mean you? - You can say so. It’s never quiet in our house at all. But we are already used to it, this is a normal process. The eldest son has started preparatory school and attends many classes. Therefore, there are basically two people at home, and the youngest and middle ones divide the acquired property between themselves. And when the older one comes home, it turns out that all his toys have already moved into the younger one’s room. (Laughs.) - Is the eldest Evgeniy six years old now? - Yes, it will be in April. — The middle one, George, will be three and a half, and the youngest, Pavel, will be two. I think they saw their mother on the screen as a TV presenter. Will they recognize you? - Yes, they scream when they see me. — Did you show them tennis matches with your participation? - No. To be honest, I don’t really like watching myself on screen. But sometimes, when our tennis channel shows some old matches, and my mother, for example, turns on the TV, then, of course, they run. But they only last a couple of minutes. — That is, they know that you are not only a TV presenter, but also an athlete. “The eldest, of course, understands this more, because he plays tennis himself. But the middle and junior ones don’t really realize this yet. — You said at one time that tennis is not an activity for boys, and you never planned to send your sons there. — I talked about professional sports, but it’s still too early for my son. But his energy needs to be directed somewhere and, preferably, in a peaceful direction. Therefore, one of the sports that he now plays is tennis. But this is only for yourself and once a week.
After leaving professional sports, dresses and high heels appeared in Anastasia Myskina’s wardrobe.
Photo: Liliya Sharlovskaya. — Nastya, I also read that after leaving professional sports, dresses and high heels appeared in your wardrobe. — Yes, there are now much more of them than jeans and sneakers. — So you now pay much more attention to self-care? — I can’t say that I devote a lot of time to myself, I simply don’t have it. Of course, I don’t forget that I need to visit some beauty salons. I really love going to the spa when I have time. But this is not a ritual. — Do you continue your fitness classes? I read that you went to the pool and even took up boxing at one time to keep in shape? — After pregnancy, of course, you really want to lose weight, and you start doing something intensively. But my impulse for such activities ended in exactly a couple of weeks. Now I understand that I am not getting any younger, and I need to pay more attention to my body and figure. I started doing more sports and going to the gym. And the children, by the way, come with me. We try to do everything together. But, of course, nannies help me, whom I really appreciate and to whom I am immensely grateful for being in my life. — Do you have time to prepare anything around the house? - Can. I’m now slowly learning how to cook different desserts - I love this most of all. Everyone in the house also enjoys eating. When inspiration comes to me, I come to the kitchen and start making something. I recently learned how to make chocolate fondant. The children ate everything with pleasure, especially the eldest. — Your program is called “Main People”. Who are the main people for you now? - My children. This is not even discussed. — What place does the spouse occupy in the hierarchy of the main people? - First the children, then the spouse. I love him, but don't let him be offended. First - the children, then - him.
