Kournikova's career has fallen away as the endorsements have increased

Kournikova stood up again, asking, "Can we try this again? Am I talking about this match, or what am I talking about?"

"You are asking a question but you are already giving an answer. You are saying my confidence is low and then you are saying you lost, how was your day, well obviously I lost."

Richardson tried again. "How will you get things back on track?

"By working hard."

Richardson: "How tough are things for you at the moment?

Kournikova: "I just try to do my thing and work hard and concentrate on what I have to do."

Richardson: "Do you think when it's not going well, 'I should pack it in, is it worth it?'"

Kournikova: "Just like all people sometimes if something is not going well you feel down, but it doesn't mean that everything is a total disaster."

Earlier in the evening she had been asked in a news conference if the number of commercials she makes interferes with her professional career.

"I don't think it distracts from my tennis," she barked. "I am not involved in a lot of stuff. It's 99% less than what everyone says I do.

"Trust me - if I was not 100% committed to playing, I wouldn't be here."

Is beauty enough in itself for Anna?

Others aren't so sure. Pam Shriver, BBC pundit and former Grand Slam doubles winner, thinks Kournikova's career is nearly at its end.

"She is desperate to get it back and she has a great coach in Harold Soloman," says Shriver.

"He is supposedly working on her attitude and trying to make her a better person - but that [interview] was horrible.

"She has been in tournaments for a long time and to behave like that was totally unprofessional and inexcusable.

"She is like that a lot of time off camera. If you talk to people behind the scenes they will tell you that was the real Anna Kournikova.

"Right now I don't think she can come back. I think she's mentally shattered."

Fellow BBC pundit John Lloyd agrees.

"That was pathetic," he said. "When you make a lot of money you will have successful and non-successful times, and you have to deal with that.

"If Anna was 17 and this was her first tournament we might give her the benefit of the doubt - but she has had more cameras in her face that I have had hot dinners, and she should be able to handle it."

Kournikova's former coach Nick Bolletierri once said she had the potential as a shot-maker to rival John McEnroe.

That she is still famously to win a singles title on the WTA tour speaks volumes about her inability to convert talent into tournament triumphs.

That her endorsements make her the richest sportswoman in the world says even more about the commercial realities of the modern sporting world.

The question Kournikova must be asking herself now is whether she needs the tennis at all.

Her face is now famous across the world. Reaching the second round of Wimbledon wouldn't change that.

She has starred in music videos and Hollywood films, commercials in print and television.

In terms of endorsements she has been a huge success. Don't her failures on court simply get in the way of the rest of the stuff?