Congratulations on her £2.2m but will anyone really notice that she's retired?

Anna never quite became the dominating player who was considered at the top of the game. But she very steadily made a good career for herself, winning a dozen tournaments and picking up some victories over noted players along the way. She also was always willing to talk to fans, give out autographs, stand for photos, and just be a generally classy player on a tour filled with prima donnas. Anna Smashnova is the type of athlete Israel wants to showcase to the world. And she's set a great example for Shahar Peer and the stars of tomorrow to follow.

She was born in Belaruss, only lived in Israel for a few years, and as far as I know lives in Italy now married to her Italian coach. As such she has never really been taken to heart by Israelis. This is in contrast to Shahar Peer who is likely to be a local heroine for years to come.

She's a very nice person who did very well who gets unfairly criticized by all sorts of disgruntled people. As to not being "taken to heart by Israelis", that's just your opinion. She actually went to the army (to the detriment of her ranking) when all those silly actresses and models skip out entirely.

Well done Anna, you have been a greate player, a fighter in the courts. Good luck in your new phase of your life.

Top athletes regularly train abroad. Most of the Russian starts live in Florida. Tons of tennis players just live in Monte Carlo for tax purposes. Shahar Peer, when she started to hit the big time last year, fired her Israeli coach, hired an entourage of trainers in America, and spent most of her off season and weeks off training in the U.S., which has paid off well. For all the talk of her army service, she's rarely in the country to fulfill it. I believe Smashnova (and Obziler), by contrast, spent most of her time actually in the army and was not released under the "elite athlete" program. I'm not sure if Smashnova resides in Italy, but I do know that she divorced her coach (Claudio Pistolesi). And her family still lives in Israel, so it's not like she just stopped by to get the citizenship and then left. As Aliya is a key part of Israel's identity, I don't think it's appropriate to dismiss someone's credentials because they were not born in Israel.

Claudio: no smash-hit!