Article by Gerhard Grundhammer

With a family name like Smashnova, tennis seems the perfect sport for 25-year-old Anna to play. She first picked up a recquet at age six in the town she was born at, Minsk, Belarus, and was teh top girls junior player in Russia for four years. Due to rising tensions in the former Soviet Union, her family moved to Israel when Smashnova was 14.

As a junior, Smashnova captured the 1991 girls title at Roland Garros, and as a pro, has advanced to the fourth round twice on the terre battue. Her baseline style is best suited for clay, but she is currently working on her net game. Obviously, the hard work has started to pay off. Smashnova won two rounds at Wimbledon for the first time last year.

Anna has captured 4 WTA Tour titles. She defieated Van Roost for the 2000 Knokke-Heist crown and Laurence Courtois to hoist the 1999 Tashkent trophy.

In 2002 she won the first two tournys, Auckland and Canberra. At the Australian Open she got defeated by the raising wta-star Katarina Srebotnik in round 1, followed by another disapointing first round loss to Leon Garcia at Acapulco. After that she found her form again. Smashnova reached the quarters of Indian Wells beating Shaughnessy there, and reached the third round of Key Biscane upsetting Justine Henin in round two!

So she must have been full of convidence as she arrived in Sarasota. She went to the qualifing rounds without loosing a set, beating E. Likhovtseva and eight seed Razzano, but at the first of April a well known Jougoslavian girl gave her a tennis-lesson! Jelena won 6-1 and 6-0. That is exactly the same result as at their first meeting at Wimbledon 2000, and obviously the winner there was Jelena, too.

The current no 35 of the world, who is only 5`3" tall, played last week at Amelia Island and lost her opening match to Reeves. Yesterday she beat German Greta Arn (not Greta Anne - as the official site says) 6-2 and 6-0 to advance to round two.

I found quite an interesting interview with Smashnova, what you might want to read:

Question: Why did you begin playing tennis at age six? Did your parents play?
Answer: The tennis club was the closest sport club to my home. It was easy to get there, and they were taking young kids. My parents did not play tennis. They started after me.

Q.: Did you have any tennis idols as a kid? Who and why?
A.: Steffi Graf because of her amazing game, attitude and will. Sanchez-Vicario because I had the same style as her.

Q.: How would you describe your game?
A.: Running everything down, no mistakes, though mental.

Q.: What have you been working on most with your game?
A.: I have been working and still working on: attacking more when the ball is short, stop in more, volley a few more times in the match, and serve.

Q.: What`s a typical day for you? How many hours do you practice?
A.: Morning practice, then fitness, lunch, rest, evening practice. About 5-6 hours.

O.: What`s your favourite tournament to play and why?
A.: French Open, because I won it, and I like clay courts most.

Q.: What was it like to win the 1991 Junior Roland Garros title?
A.: It was something I have not expected, but once I was in the finals, I really wanted the title. I could not see myself loosing. I knew I had to win. I was 6-2 and 4-0 down. I had tears in my eyes. But I fought with
everything I had inside me. The win brought me up in the sky, and I had such a relief inside me. After that, I slept almost non-stop 48 hours.

Q.: Which languages do you speak?
A.: Russian, English and Hebrew.

Q.: If you were not a tennis player, what would you do instead?
A.: Maybe computer programming or lawyer, or psychology or many more tings I like to study.

(The interview was arranged by SMS Sports Management)

Last I have to appologize for the lengh of that preview but I want to keep up with the quality of Todd`s, Glyn`s and Madonna`s articles :-)