[1] She was born in Redhill, Surrey, to Robert and Gunilla Smith and started playing tennis at the age of ten.

[3] Smith played her first professional match in July 2004, courtesy of a wildcard into the qualifying draw of the $10k tournament in Felixstowe, England.

[2] In April 2005, Smith lost in the final round of qualifying for the $10k in Porto Santo, Portugal, but was given a chance in the main draw as a lucky loser.

In September, she won her first professional singles title at the $10k event in Nottingham beating compatriot Georgie Stoop in the final.

The rest of the year saw limited success for Smith in singles, though she did win a doubles title in Redbridge with Anna Hawkins.

In March 2007, Smith reached the third singles final of her career at a $10k event in Hamilton, New Zealand, where she lost to Erika Sema.

She got no more notable results until August that year when she hit another good patch, reaching the semifinal of the $10k event in London before losing to Martina Babáková.

[2] 2008 started disappointingly for Smith as she only managed to reach one ITF quarterfinal before entering the qualifying event for Wimbledon where she won one match (against Julie Coin of France) before losing in the second round.

[2] In her new season she won only one match out of her first eleven, before going on to take the title in Felixstowe in July, beating Heather Watson in the semifinals and Tímea Babos in the final.

[2] Smith won her first WTA Tour title when she and Nicole Melichar beat Kirsten Flipkens and Johanna Larsson in the final of Nuremberg.