World No 8 Jelena Dokic, of Yugoslavia, is not playing any Australian tournaments and No 12 Nathalie Tauziat, of France, has retired.
Smashnova, who came into the Auckland tournament ranked 87 but left for Australia at 69, will be one of the 96 unseeded players in the 128-strong draw.
As well as the title, she takes the confidence she gained from her emphatic week at Stanley St across the Tasman.
Smashnova was well pleased with her start to the year.
She went through the tournament without dropping a set, notching quickfire wins over Russians Alina Jidkova and crowd favourite Anna Kournikova, and needed just 1h 14m to see off the 1.54m (5ft) Panova.
"I had November and December off and worked real hard," Smashnova said after winning here at her eighth attempt.
"Fitness and tennis won it for me. It was very windy out there which meant we had to move around the court more."
Smashnova held her serve to love in taking the opening game. She broke Panova in the fourth and sixth games and held serve without being taken to deuce.
The second set was just as easy for the 25-year-old - apart from dropping her serve for the only time in the match in the opening game.
Level 2-2 after breaking Panova in the fourth game, Smashnova won the next four games for her third WTA title.
Hoping to surprise her boyfriend/coach Claudio Piftolesi and her parents, Smashnova rang home minutes after being handed the $US22,000 ($51,000) winner's cheque.
But it was she who got the surprise. Unbeknown to Smashnova, the match had been shown live in Israel.
"It was 3 am when I called, but they already knew the result."
When asked about defending her title, she said: "I guess, yes, I'll be back."
The match was not the expected baseline bore. Smashnova, who first played as a six-year-old in the former Soviet Union, was more aggressive. Rather than relying on Panova's unforced errors, she came up with winners of her own.
Panova said her opponent was better-prepared.
"Mentally, I was tired. My concentration was loose.
"It was hard out there in the wind, running and returning so many balls. She dosen't really do anything on court. She waits for mistakes. That's her game."
Smashnova has her sights on going higher than her career-best ranking of 36 and Panova, who is within sight of her best of 32 (in February last year), is after a place in the top 20.
"I want to be there by the end of the year," she said after a week in which she reached her second WTA final. She also picked up some pocket money by reaching the doubles semifinals, where she and Tatiana Poutchek, of Belarus, lost to the top seeds and eventual winners, American Nicole Arendt and South African Liezel Huber.
The doubles final was also a two-set affair. Arendt and Huber - in their first tournament together - were too strong for fourth seeds Czech Kveta Hrdlickova and Henrieta Nagyova, of Slovakia, winning 7-5, 6-4 in just under 90 minutes.
"Every match here has been a challenge," Huber said.
Arendt added: "We were within one point of going out in the first round when we were triple match point down. We had luck and in the end we took a few more chances and got through."
The left-hand/right-hand combination - a first for right-handed Huber - worked a treat and gave the rookie pairing a solid lead-in to the Australian Open, where they are now likely to be seeded.
While the finals did not quite match some of the earlier tennis, they were played in front of a capacity crowd at the end of what everyone agreed had been a great week of tennis and a fitting lead-in to this week's men's Heineken Open.
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