But winning over the crowd was a good deal easier than the match against gritty Zimbabwean Cara Black, perhaps the only person in the stadium not overawed by the Russian's style.
Black twice broke the Kournikova serve in the first set before losing a tie-breaker and the match, 6-7, 2-6.
Kournikova, said to be more celebrated for her looks than her game, wowed the Auckland crowd with her athletic ability, although she struggled at times to make her shots.
But there was no doubting her capacity to work the court - and the crowd in the ASB Bank Tennis Centre, a stadium which is smaller than tennis novices may imagine.
Even those seated in the back row were treated to a relatively intimate audience with the golden-haired beauty.
Her every volley, serve and stretch were only metres away.
The fans mostly kept their admiration to polite applause, except for a male group sitting in a corporate box who went to greater trouble to show their devotion.
The six men in long, blonde wigs and Anna T-shirts wore KFC boxes on their heads - but not because they were being sponsored, they said.
They insisted it stood for the Kournikova Fan Club.
The group's organiser, Craig Rendle from Mt Wellington, said: "To be totally honest, if she hadn't been playing we wouldn't be here."
They were dubbed the "Ugly Annas", but were rewarded for their vocal efforts when the winner gave them a special wave and smile as she left the court.
An equally dedicated fan, 19-year-old Jake Grundling from Papatoetoe, arrived at the courts at 5 am to buy three of the few remaining tickets.
His only disappointment afterwards was that the game was over in two sets.
There were some who would have come if Kournikova had not been playing, but they were hard to find.
Tennis fan Barbara Maher has been coming to the tournament for years.
She has seen the standard of tennis improve and the crowds increase.
"The place used to be empty. You could sit wherever you liked."
Once the prime attraction had finished her match, many of the crowd moved from the blistering heat of centre court - where temperatures had reached 37 degrees - and headed for the cafes and the shade of the trees that line the outer courts.
They had seen a treat.
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