Anna and I make kiss-tory

PRETTY PICTURE

Quick Hits posed a question for Anna Kournikova:

Would you pose for a photo?

''Yes,'' the tennis starlet -- whose prominence on these pages is unparalleled -- said Monday in our first (but hopefully not last) face-to-face meeting before she participated in a tennis exhibition at the Sears Centre in Hoffman Estates. ''Absolutely.''

Not just any photo. This would be her giving a kiss on the cheek to yours truly for Valentine's Day.

''All right,'' she said.

''If you want to, fine; if you don't, I'll understand,'' Quick Hits said, not yet comprehending her positive response.

''No problem,'' she said. ''We'll do it. We'll get it done.''

So we did. With photographic proof.

Are you sure there's not a Pulitzer Prize category for this sort of thing?

Too bad.

Back to reality (or a reasonable facsimile thereof).

Any Valentine plans?

''No, actually,'' she said. ''I never celebrate Valentine's.''

Are you not a romantic?

''I am romantic,'' Anna answered. ''I'm very romantic, but I don't think there should be a certain day to celebrate your romantic side. To each his own. Sometimes I end up working on that day. Like this time, I end up flying [back to Miami, weather permitting]. I just don't like to be committed to one day or confined that I have to do certain things that day like celebrate.''

While Rick and Ilsa from the movie classic ''Casablanca'' will always have Paris, Anna and Quick Hits will always have Hoffman Estates.

Where's the love?

Not at Sunday's TNA wrestling ''Against All Odds'' pay-per-view in Orlando, Fla.

The event featured Team Pierzynski against Team Eckstein.

As in White Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski and St. Louis Cardinals shortstop David Eckstein.

The 2006 World Series MVP showed some power in smacking Dale Torborg with a chair in Team Eckstein's triumph. Pierzynski had hit Team Eckstein's Lance Hoyt with a chair, a tactic that had the referee restarting the match in what looked like a Team Pierzynski victory.

''We beat them at their game,'' Eckstein said. ''Spring training is almost here, and I just needed a little extra batting practice.''

''We won, and I can't believe the referee had the audacity to overturn the outcome,'' Pierzynski said. ''That was bad. We won fair and square. For that ref to listen to Eckstein's word is completely wrong. We were cheated.''

As for chair man Eckstein?

''I don't think he hits hard enough,'' Pierzynski said. ''He might have to go to spring training and work on it.''

Oh, Henry.

Pro golfer Hank Kuehne is dating tennis star Venus Williams.

She recently accompanied him for the drive to Orlando from Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., for the PGA Merchandise Show.

Kuehne, who was an item with Paula Abdul in 2000, is to become divorced this month from wife Nicole and have joint custody of their 16-month-old son, Henry III.

''It has been different, but it has been nice,'' Kuehne told GolfWorld magazine of his relationship with Williams, whom he began seeing in December.

''It's nice to see somebody who does the same things you do, the same type of practice schedule and commitment to a sport, [who] understands everything I go through trying to get ready to play.''

Miniature golf played a big part in determining the last name a recently married New Zealand couple would use.

Greg Marshall and Adrienne Foley played 18 holes in their wedding garb after the bride wondered, ''Why do they always take the guy's name?''

So they played a round before they played around.

''Greg's a keen golfer,'' she told the Dominion Post. ''He's been playing since pretty much forever.''

Foley did score a hole-in-one on the ninth.

''For about five months, I'd been going 'round the house saying, 'Gregory James Foley, that sounds good,''' she said.

However, her husband prevailed by clinching the match on the final hole.

''He got there, he won, so I have to take his name,'' she said. ''Next time, it's pool -- or something more even.''

She would be hard-pressed to find something more odd.

Love is in the air.

So is the flu.

Which leaves American skier Lindsey Kildow with little to do now that her fiance, Thomas Vonn, is sick.

''He's quarantined,'' said Kildow, runner-up in the super-G and downhill races Sunday at Are, Sweden. ''He's been in his room pretty much for three days. I went and got him some microwaveable meals. He didn't want to come to the team dinners and get everyone sick.

''I just left him some delivery stuff at the door. I saw him for a bit [the other day]. We were standing 10 feet apart. Everyone thought we were fighting.''

Kildow is rooming with fellow skier Stacey Cook, while Vonn is in a sponsor's apartment.

''I was really lonely,'' Kildow said. ''I had Stacey to hang out in my room, but of course it's not the same.''

Of course.

In a pairing of tennis players, Ashley Harkleroad's love match with Alex Bogomolov ended in a split decision.

Married at 19, Harkleroad, 21, divorced Bogomolov in the fall.

The Georgia native has moved on -- to a new home in Malibu, Calif. She's hoping to move up in the WTA rankings.

''You shouldn't be stressed out about marriage, and I don't think he should be either,'' she told tennisreporters.net. ''We were too young. That's what they do in Georgia, get married at 19 and start having babies [laugh].

''It was fun, and we tried to make it work. It was a little crazy. I can be a little crazy. I did what I thought I needed to do at the time, and at the time it seemed right, but life goes on. I just said enough is enough. When you are both playing, you are all over the world. It doesn't work. I don't like to be alone really, but it had to be me being there for him, or him for me, and it was too much. Honestly, I don't think he could focus on his tennis with me, and I know for a fact that he will be better off.''