continued

   Male sports commentators in New Zealand were typically frank, a reputation that the country prides itself on. Phil Murray in Wellington tabloid Contact was not alone in highlighting that the straight male appeal was how Kournikova sweated into her Adidas outfit (auctioned for NZ$2,100 for charity), parts of it turning different shades of blue. Columnist Chris Rattue in The New Zealand Herald wrote, ‘Television advertisements portrayed the average bloke tennis watcher as having his eyes glued on, shall we say, to the Annatomy while the rest of the crowd swivelled their heads following the ball.’
   After all, the reason Kournikova first appeared on the pages of Lucire was because of her web site launch, the article for which centred on the fact that ‘Anna Kournikova’ is the most-searched term for any athlete on the web. Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods trailed her substantially, even though they made it into the top 10.

continued