Anna Smashnova

Smashnova was born in Minsk on July 16, 1976.[1] She began playing tennis at six because a nearby tennis club accepted young children and was easy to reach from her home.[2] Her parents did not initially play the sport but took it up after she did.[2] During the late 1980s, she spent four years as Russia’s leading girls’ junior player.[2]

She moved to Israel with her family in 1990, following an invitation from tennis sponsor Freddie Kravine.[1][2] In 1991, she won the French Open girls’ singles title at age 14.[1][4] In the final against Gorocategui, she recovered from a 6–2, 4–0 deficit to win 2–6, 7–5, 6–1.[4]

Smashnova spoke Russian, English, and Hebrew and graduated from American International High School outside Tel Aviv in 1995.[2] She completed her mandatory service in the Israeli Army in 1997.[2]

Smashnova began her professional senior career in 1991 and defeated world No. 15 Lori McNeil in the first round of that year’s US Open.[1] In 1994, she received the Tennis Magazine/Rolex Watch Female Rookie of the Year award.[2] She reached the fourth round of the French Open in both 1995 and 1998, her best Grand Slam singles results.[2]

Clay was her favorite surface, and her baseline game emphasized limiting mistakes, chasing down balls, and maintaining mental toughness.[2] She compared her approach to that of Arantxa Sánchez-Vicario.[2] Her first WTA title came at Tashkent in 1999.[2] On July 24, 2000, she added the Sanex Trophy in Belgium, defeating top seed Dominique Van Roost 6–2, 7–5 in the final.[2]

Smashnova began working with Claudio Pistolesi in 2001, and he became her coach.[1] The following January, she entered the Auckland ASB Bank Classic unseeded and ranked No. 88.[2] After beating former world No. 8 Anna Kournikova in the semifinal, she defeated fifth seed Tatiana Panova 6–2, 6–2 to win the title.[2] A heavy breeze unsettled both finalists and blew spectators’ hats off during the match.[2] One week later, she won the Canberra Classic by beating top seed Tamarine Tanasugarn 7–5, 7–6.[2]

Her strong results continued with a quarterfinal appearance at Indian Wells and victories over then-world No. 7 Justine Henin and No. 3 Kim Clijsters during 2002.[1] On June 16, she defeated defending champion Iroda Tulyaganova 6–4, 6–1 in the Wien Energie Grand Prix final.[2] In the semifinal, she had beaten local favorite Patricia Wartusch, ending Wartusch’s six-match winning streak.[2] Her fourth title of the year came at the Shanghai Open on September 15, when she defeated Kournikova 6–2, 6–3.[2] Afterward, Kournikova said: “She was like a wall today, hitting everything back.”[2]

At Wimbledon in 2002, Smashnova was seeded No. 15, becoming the first Israeli woman seeded at a Grand Slam tournament, but lost in the opening round to Angelique Widjaja.[2] Seeded No. 17 at the US Open, she won her first match before losing to Amanda Coetzer in the second round.[2] Her year-end ranking qualified her for the WTA Tour Championship, where she became the first Israeli woman to compete and lost her opening match to Serena Williams.[2] She married Pistolesi on December 7, 2002, and subsequently competed as Anna Pistolesi.[2]

As the No. 14 seed at the 2003 Australian Open, Smashnova won her first-round match and advanced through the second round when Maja Matevzic withdrew with Smashnova leading 5–1.[2] Coetzer defeated her in the third round.[2] At the French Open, where she was seeded No. 23, she reached the second round in singles and also the second round of mixed doubles with Leos Friedl.[2]

During the 2003 season, she won the Idea Prokom Open in Poland, defeating Patti Schnyder before beating Klara Koukalova in the final.[2] Five days later, she won the Nordic Light Open in Helsinki against Jelena Kostanic, bringing her record in tour finals to eight victories from eight appearances.[2] At New Haven, she defeated world No. 10 Anastasia Myskina and Vera Zvonareva before losing to Jennifer Capriati in the quarterfinal while apparently troubled by a leg injury.[2] She reached a career-high ranking of No. 15 in August 2003.[1][5]

Smashnova was again seeded No. 14 at the Australian Open in 2004 but lost to Tatiana Golovin in the second round.[2] On May 22, she won her ninth career title in Vienna, defeating sixth seed Alicia Molik 6–3, 3–6, 6–2 in the final.[2] At the French Open, she reached the third round and won the opening set against ninth seed Elena Dementieva 6–0, but severe cramps forced her to retire at the beginning of the third set.[2] She lost in the first round at Wimbledon and was ranked No. 18 on July 8.[2]

Representing Israel in women’s singles at the 2004 Athens Olympics, Smashnova lost in the first round.[6] She and Pistolesi separated that year, and her ranking subsequently declined toward approximately No. 60.[1] She nevertheless continued winning titles, taking the Modena and Budapest tournaments in 2005 and winning Budapest again in 2006.[1] During her 2006 Budapest title defense, she opened with a 6–1, 3–6, 6–3 victory over Greece’s Eleni Daniilidou.[3]

Alongside her individual tournament career, Smashnova was a regular member of Israel’s Fed Cup team from her debut in July 1992.[7] By April 2006, she had helped Israel reach three consecutive World Group qualifying appearances, including a tie against the United States in 2002.[7] In an opening-day victory over Sweden in April 2006, she equaled the competition record with her 58th tie and brought her singles record to 38–21.[7]

Three appearances at the Europe/Africa Zone Group I event in Plovdiv took her total to a record 60 ties.[8] She lost her singles matches against Romania and Estonia, but Shahar Pe’er and Tzipi Obziler secured Israel’s victories in those ties.[8] By July, her appearance record stood at 61, and the International Tennis Federation announced that she would receive a special merit award for the achievement.[3]

At Forest Hills in 2006, Smashnova defeated Maria Elena Camerin 6–4, 6–4 to reach her 13th career final.[9] Entering that final, she had won all 12 of her previous tour finals.[9] In March 2007, she announced that the season would be her last on the WTA tour, explaining that she would play a few more tournaments before deciding whether to finish after Wimbledon or the US Open.[5] She said: “My career had to end sometime and I'm happy with my decision.”[5]

Her final tournament was Wimbledon, where she lost 0–6, 0–6 to Martina Müller in the first round and retired immediately afterward.[1] She ended her career ranked No. 168 in the world.[10]

Smashnova finished her career with 12 WTA titles.[1] She spent nine consecutive years in the world’s top 100, a span also achieved by Israeli player Amos Mansdorf.[11] Her firsts for Israeli women included a Grand Slam seeding and participation in the WTA Tour Championship, while her sustained national-team service established a Fed Cup appearance record.[2][3]

Her defensive persistence remained a feature of opponents’ recollections after her retirement.[12] In a 2008 player poll about difficult opponents, Elena Dementieva singled out Smashnova as especially challenging on clay.[12] Recalling their French Open encounter, Dementieva said that she herself had been exhausted and suffering muscle cramps before Smashnova retired first.[12] Vera Zvonareva likewise recalled that her matches against Smashnova lasted three hours.[12]

Smashnova’s career also formed part of the contribution to Israeli sport made by immigrants arriving amid the late-1980s and early-1990s collapse of Communist regimes in Eastern Europe.[13] She was among the immigrant athletes whose arrival helped create new opportunities for sport in Israel.[13]