Maria Egee: The Untold Story Behind Amanda Anisimova’s Biggest Supporter

You have probably seen her in the stands. A blonde woman in the second row, cheering louder than anyone else, sometimes holding a toddler on her hip. That woman is Maria Egee, and if you have followed Amanda Anisimova’s tennis career even a little, her face has become just as familiar as the player on the court.

But Maria Egee is not just “the sister in the crowd.” She has her own story, one that started long before Amanda ever picked up a racket. This post pulls together everything worth knowing about Maria Egee: her childhood in Moscow, her own tennis career at the University of Pennsylvania, her move into finance, and the role she has played in shaping her younger sister’s path to the top of the tennis world.

Who Is Maria Egee?

Maria Egee is the older sister of professional tennis player Amanda Anisimova. She was born in the Soviet Union in January 1988, thirteen years before Amanda came into the world. Today, she works in finance and lives on the East Coast with her husband and two sons.

She is often described as Amanda’s first tennis inspiration, her biggest cheerleader, and more recently, a finance professional with her own accomplishments. Her name, Maria Egee, comes from her marriage to Kevin Egee, a college sweetheart she met while they were both students together.

A Quick Snapshot of Maria Egee

• Born in Moscow, Russia, in January 1988
• Moved to the United States with her family in 1998
• Played collegiate tennis at the University of Pennsylvania
• Married Kevin Egee in February 2016
• Mother of two sons, including a son named Jackson
• Works in finance, with ties to Wall Street firms
• Older sister of Grand Slam finalist Amanda Anisimova

Maria Egee’s Childhood in Moscow

Maria’s story starts far from center court at Wimbledon or Arthur Ashe Stadium. She grew up in Moscow with her parents, Konstantin and Olga Anisimova. Life in Russia in the late 1990s was not easy. The country was going through a serious financial crisis, and opportunities for a young family were limited.

Maria was only ten years old when her parents made the decision to leave everything behind. In 1998, the family packed up and moved to the United States, hoping to build a better life for their daughter. That single decision would end up shaping two tennis careers, though nobody knew it at the time.

Settling Into Life in New Jersey

The Anisimov family landed in Colts Neck, New Jersey. For a ten year old girl who had just left the only home she knew, adjusting to a new country, a new language, and a new school system could not have been simple. But Maria found something familiar to hold onto: tennis.

She had already started playing the sport back in Moscow, and once the family settled into their new American life, she kept at it. Tennis gave her structure and a sense of purpose during a period of enormous change.

Maria Egee Was a Tennis Player Long Before Amanda

Here is a detail a lot of casual tennis fans miss. Before Amanda Anisimova became a household name, Maria Egee was already building a respectable tennis career of her own.

When Amanda was born in 2001, the family moved again, this time to Florida, so that Maria could train more seriously. That move ended up being important for both sisters. Maria continued developing her game in Florida’s competitive junior tennis scene, and Amanda, still a toddler, tagged along to her sister’s practices almost every day.

From Florida Courts to the Ivy League

Maria’s hard work paid off. She earned a spot on the tennis team at the University of Pennsylvania, one of the eight Ivy League schools known for combining serious academics with competitive athletics.

During her freshman season in 2006 and 2007, Maria and her doubles partner, Ekaterina Kominskaya, made history. They became the first doubles pair in UPenn program history to qualify for the NCAA championships. That season, the duo finished ranked 46th in the country and pulled off an upset win against the 35th ranked pair from LSU in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

That is not a small accomplishment. Qualifying for the NCAA tournament as a freshman pair from an Ivy League program, and then winning a match against a higher seeded team, takes serious skill and composure under pressure.

An Injury Changed the Course of Maria’s Tennis Career

Unfortunately, Maria’s collegiate tennis career did not end the way she probably hoped. An injury forced her to sit out her entire final season in 2009 and 2010. For any competitive athlete, missing your senior year due to injury is a tough way to close out a chapter.

Still, what Maria accomplished on the court at UPenn stands on its own. Making the NCAA tournament as a freshman and pulling off an upset win is more than most college tennis players ever achieve, injury or not.

How Maria Egee Inspired Amanda Anisimova to Play Tennis

This is probably the part of Maria’s story that most people search for. Amanda Anisimova has said, in her own words, that watching her older sister play tennis is what got her hooked on the sport in the first place.

Amanda started playing tennis at around age two, simply because she wanted to be near her sister. She has explained in interviews that she used to tag along to Maria’s practices every single day, and eventually that curiosity turned into a genuine passion.

“My sister ended up playing for UPenn at college. So when I was little, she was playing tennis. I always saw her playing, and I wanted to do it too.”

That quote captures the whole story in a nutshell. Maria did not just happen to be a tennis player who had a talented younger sister. She was the reason Amanda picked up a racket at all.

Growing Up Thirteen Years Apart

A thirteen year age gap between sisters can go one of two ways. Sometimes it creates distance. In this family, it seems to have created the opposite: a close bond where the older sister became something like a second mother figure and mentor.

By the time Amanda was old enough to compete seriously, Maria had already moved on from her own tennis career and into adulthood. But she never stepped away from the sport entirely. Instead, she shifted into the role of supporter, mentor, and eventually, one of Amanda’s closest confidants on tour.

Maria Egee’s Career in Finance

After tennis, Maria pivoted into a very different world: finance. She built a career centered around cash management and portfolio strategy, working with firms connected to Wall Street.

Her professional background includes experience at Loop Capital, and her education at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania gave her a strong foundation for a career in investment and asset management. Wharton is widely regarded as one of the top business schools in the country, so her academic pedigree lines up well with the career path she chose.

Recognition in the Finance World

Maria Egee has earned recognition within her industry, including being named to a notable 30 Under 30 list focused on finance. Lists like these typically highlight young professionals who have shown early promise and measurable impact in their field, and being included is generally seen as a meaningful career marker in the finance industry.

She has also appeared as a featured speaker on topics related to the economy, finance, and women in business, sharing her professional insight beyond her day to day work.

Why Her Finance Career Matters to Her Story

It would be easy to reduce Maria Egee to just “Amanda Anisimova’s sister.” But her career in finance shows a person who built an independent professional identity outside of tennis and outside of her sister’s spotlight.

That matters, because it reframes the relationship between the two sisters. Maria is not defined by Amanda’s success. She has her own accomplishments, her own degree, her own job title, and her own path. The two sisters simply happen to share a tight bond and a family history rooted in the same sport.

Maria Egee’s Family Life

In February 2016, Maria married Kevin Egee. The two met as students at the University of Pennsylvania, making them college sweethearts who built a life together after graduation.

Maria and Kevin now have two sons together. One of their sons, Jackson, has become something of a familiar face at Amanda’s biggest matches. He was present at Wimbledon in 2025, and the timing could not have been more meaningful. Jackson’s fourth birthday landed just two days after Amanda reached the semifinals, and Amanda brought him onto the court to share the moment publicly.

A Family That Shows Up

The Egee family, based in Florida, has become known among tennis fans for showing up. Whether it is the US Open in New York or Wimbledon in London, Maria has been a consistent presence in the stands, often seated with her mother, Olga.

Photos from major tournaments frequently capture Maria in the second row, close to the court, watching every point with the kind of focus that only someone who once played competitive tennis herself would understand.

Maria Egee at Wimbledon 2025

The summer of 2025 turned into an unforgettable moment for the entire Anisimov family. Amanda fought her way through the Wimbledon draw, eventually facing off against world number one Aryna Sabalenka in the semifinals.

Amanda won that match in three tight sets, becoming the youngest American woman to reach a Wimbledon singles final since Serena Williams accomplished the same feat back in 2004. Maria was there for all of it, seated in the stands alongside her husband and young son.

After the win, Amanda shared an emotional message thanking her family, specifically calling out her sister, brother in law, and their “beautiful” family for their support throughout the tournament. It was a public acknowledgment of just how important Maria’s presence has been throughout Amanda’s career, not just during one big tournament, but across years of practices, matches, and quiet encouragement behind the scenes.

Why Maria Egee’s Story Connects With Fans

Part of what makes Maria Egee such an interesting figure is how relatable her story is, even set against the backdrop of professional sports. She was a kid who left her home country with her parents, adjusted to a new life, found something she loved in tennis, and eventually built her own career while still finding time to show up for her family.

Fans of Amanda Anisimova often find themselves curious about Maria because she represents something genuine. She is not a manufactured storyline or a marketing angle. She is a real sister who happened to introduce her younger sibling to a sport that eventually turned into a career reaching Grand Slam finals.

The bond between the two women, built over more than two decades, from a shared childhood in Moscow to college tennis courts in Philadelphia to Centre Court at Wimbledon, is the kind of family story that sticks with people long after the match scores are forgotten.

Search interest in Maria Egee tends to spike whenever her sister has a big tournament run. That makes sense. People watch a player win a huge match, notice the family celebrating in the stands, and want to know who these people are and what their story looks like off camera. Maria happens to have a story worth knowing on its own, separate from anything happening on a tennis court.

A Sister First, A Support System Always

If you strip away the finance career and the college tennis accolades for a moment, what remains is a simple truth. Maria Egee has spent more than twenty years showing up for her younger sister in ways that go far beyond cheering from the stands.

She was there during the early years in Florida, watching a toddler mimic her swings on the practice court. She was there through Amanda’s rise in the junior ranks, through the ups and downs of a professional career that has included both career highs and stretches away from the sport for her mental health. And she was there in London in the summer of 2025, holding her son’s hand, watching her sister step onto Centre Court for a Grand Slam final.

That kind of consistency is rare, even within families. It says something about the values instilled by their parents, Konstantin and Olga, who uprooted their entire life to give their children a shot at something better in a new country.

What Maria Egee’s Journey Teaches About Family and Ambition

There is a lesson buried inside Maria Egee’s story that goes beyond tennis or finance. It is about how ambition does not have to be a competition between siblings. Maria could have easily resented the attention her younger sister eventually received. Instead, she leaned into the role of mentor and cheerleader while quietly building an impressive career of her own in a completely different field.

That balance, supporting someone else’s dream while chasing your own, is not always easy to strike. Maria Egee appears to have managed it gracefully, and that might be the most admirable part of her story.

Final Thoughts on Maria Egee

Maria Egee’s story is proof that not every meaningful role in a champion’s journey happens on the court. Sometimes it starts with a little sister tagging along to practice, watching her older sibling hit forehands, and deciding she wanted to try it too.

Maria Egee gave Amanda Anisimova that first spark. She built her own career, raised her own family, and still shows up, match after match, tournament after tournament, as one of the steadiest presences in her sister’s corner. That combination of independent success and unwavering family support is exactly why so many people want to know more about who Maria Egee really is.