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Miss America Rising star Harkleroad invited to U.S. training camp
LONDON (Reuters) -- Skeptics have dubbed her "Kourna-Copy" and the "American Anna" but U.S. tennis officials confirmed their faith in 16-year-old Ashley Harkleroad this week by inviting her to an Olympic training camp. To date, the teen-ager has made more headlines with her skimpy tennis outfits and likeness to Anna Kournikova than her on-court prowess, but U.S. tennis chiefs hope that will all change. Harkleroad, also nicknamed "Pebbles" after the cartoon daughter of Fred Flintstone -- she was born in the small Georgia town which shares a name with the prehistoric family -- has been named in the elite squad for this week's USTA "Gold Medal Training Camp" at the Saddlebrook Resort in Wesley Chapel, Florida. The camp is seen as "an opportunity to focus the goals of these players towards competing in the 2003 Pan-Am Games in the Dominican Republic and at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens," the United States Tennis Association said. The youngster, who already trains at Saddlebrook, will work with Billie Jean King, the U.S. Olympic women's tennis coach for the 1996 and 2000 Olympic Games, as well as the U.S. Fed Cup captain. A U.S. under-18 junior champion aged 15, Harkleroad hit the international headlines earlier this year when she made her debut at the U.S. Open. She put up a brave performance, losing to compatriot Meilen Tu in three sets, but was noticed more for her midriff-baring top. Harkleroad wears her long, blonde hair in the style of Russian Kournikova and, perhaps attracted by the thought of multi-million dollar endorsements, does little to discourage comparisons with the east European. "I like the attention," she said at the U.S. Open. "The outfit was tight and short, but I like things like that...and they [the crowd] liked it on me. "That's why I wore it and possibly the crowd maybe was more on my side because of that outfit." Kournikova, though, has become a byword for triumph of appearance over performance. Despite cleaning up in the endorsement stakes, she has never won a senior singles event. Harkleroad is determined that is one trait of her favorite player she will not emulate. "Hopefully I'll make it to my goals... to what I want to be," she says. "I want to do my very best and try to be top 10, top five. I don't have a set time for that -- any time would be nice for me."
Copyright 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
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