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January 10, 2003
Israeli tennis star is on the rise
Anna Smashnova will have a chance to rectify her poor Grand Slam
record in next week's Australian Open.
SIMON GRIVER SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH BULLETIN
Tennis star Anna Smashnova became the most successful Israeli player
ever when she climbed to 16th place in the World Tennis Association
(WTA) rankings recently. In a superb year, which saw the 26-year-old,
Minsk-born immigrant win four major competitions and break the million
dollar prize-winning barrier, Smashnova surpassed Amos Mansdorf's
previous Israeli high of 18th in the world rankings in 1988.
The culmination of Smashnova's remarkable year came at the beginning
of last November when she qualified for the Sanex WTA Championships
in Los Angeles – an exclusive competition for the world's top
16 female players. And while the WTA number one Serena Williams
soundly beat the Israeli, it would have been difficult a year ago
to imagine Smashnova in such illustrious company.
Some 19 months ago, ranked 128th in the world of female tennis,
in which teenagers are already expected to have reached the top,
Smashnova seemed to be a spent force.
"To be honest, by the middle of 2001, my career seemed to be
fading," she recalled. "I was very seriously considering
retiring from professional tennis."
Her life changed in the summer of 2001 when coach Claudio Pustucelli
took her under his wing. Not only did the Italian become her personal
trainer, the two soon became romantically involved and have been
together ever since. Though Smashnova returned to Israel to visit
her family in Herzliya (father Sasha, mother Zena and younger brother
Yuri) during the November/December break before the new tennis season
opened in January, she spent most of the vacation in Rome with Pustucelli.
"Claudio has given me a new confidence in myself and my abilities,"
stressed Smashnova. "At the start of the year he convinced
me that I can make the top 20 and I did. Now I believe that I can
reach the top 10."
Certainly Smashnova's results justify this optimism. During the
course of the year, she had many victories over top 10 players such
as Kim Clijsters of Belgium, Jelena Dokic of Yugoslavia and Daniela
Huntuchova of Slovakia.
Smashnova's road to recovery began in the fall of 2001 when she
rose to 88 in the world rankings. And she began 2002 by winning
two straight tournaments in Auckland, New Zealand, and Canberra,
Australia. She had only ever previously won two WTA circuit tournaments
in her entire career – in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, in 1999 and
Knokke, Belgium, in 2000. And in the summer she added two major
tournaments to her tally in Vienna, Austria, and Shanghai, China,
the latter taking her total career earnings past the million dollar
mark.
In fact, money, or rather a lack of it until the past year, has
been the main reason why Smashnova has not lived up to her childhood
promise. Born in 1976 in the former Soviet Union, she won the French
Open junior title when she was 14, shortly after immigrating to
Israel. Rising to No. 42 in the world rankings by the time she was
18, she seemed destined for stardom. But a reversal of fortune saw
her slump to 260th by 1997. She was down but not out and suddenly
surged back stronger than ever reaching 35th spot, a career high,
in 1999. But a new slump saw her falling to 128.
"Until I met Claudio," she recounted, "I always lacked
a good trainer. In fact, for many years I simply could not afford
a personal trainer. In the highly competitive world of tennis it
is impossible to succeed without top-quality individual coaching."
Indeed, virtually every tennis star in the West today, like the
Williams sisters, is the product of wealthy parents who invest money,
time and energy in breeding champions.
In the Soviet Union, Smashnova enjoyed the top-level intensive tuition
that was always given to talented sports starlets. But in Israel,
her immigrant parents – her father, an engineer, and her mother,
a housewife – were unable to give their daughter the kind of
financial assistance that is vital for budding tennis stars. The
Israel Tennis Centre program in Ramat Hasharon for talented teenagers
sustained her during her formative years, but as a young adult she
struggled to build a serious career.
"I had to serve in the army for two years from 1996,"
she explained, "and that inhibited my career. I was limited
in travelling abroad and had no money for hiring trainers."
Over the past year, Smashnova has been criticized at home for not
being Israeli enough. In particular, many feel that she could be
using her international prominence to explain Israeli policies regarding
the Palestinians and on another occasion she told a journalist from
the Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot that she would prefer to
be interviewed in English rather than Hebrew.
"These criticisms really hurt me," she insisted. "I
am a proud Jew and Israeli. I am always available to represent Israel
in the Federation Cup and last year we reached a play off for the
World Group, which we eventually lost to the U.S. This was very
exciting.
"At tournaments," she added, "instead of asking questions
about my tennis, journalists are always interested in Israel and
the security situation there. I do not like to mix sport and politics.
The situation in Israel is very painful for me and I am always scared
that something will happen to my family. But I am not very articulate
about politics and I don't feel qualified to discuss a very complex
situation."
Regarding her request to be interviewed in English and the flak
she took in Israel, she also feels a need to justify herself.
"My mother tongue is Russian and of course I am fluent in Hebrew,"
she said. "But for the past four or five years I have been
on the international circuit almost the entire time and we all speak
in English. When the journalist interviewed me I was very tired
and it just seemed easier to do it in English."
It is often commented on that her name in English is highly appropriate
for a tennis player. In actual fact, her close to the net volley
game is the weakest aspect of her play. Smashnova is at her best
at the back of the court, patiently playing the long rallies until
she is able to punish an opponent's error. It is this stamina and
patient determination that has allowed her to eventually reap success
despite years of frustration.
But by her own admission, if she wants to reach the world's top
10 she will have to live up to her name and improve her "overhead
smash and volley" game. And while she is strong on hard courts,
Smashnova also needs to improve her ability on grass.
Smashnova's 16 ranking is also remarkable in that she had a wretched
year in 2002 in the four tournaments that really count – the
Grand Slams – in Australia, France, England and the United
States. In Melbourne, Rolland Garros and Wimbledon she went out
in the first round, while at Flushing Meadow she only made it to
the second round. Smashnova's best-ever Grand Slam performance came
in 1995 when she reached the fifth round of the French Open.
Next week, Smashnova will have her first opportunity to rectify
this poor Grand Slam record in the Australian Open, which takes
place Jan. 13-26. And if a year ago she had thoughts of retirement,
this year she is chomping at the bit to get back on court.
Simon Griver is a writer with the Israel Press Service.
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