Martina Hingis

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Martina Hingis bigraphy, stories - Swiss tennis player

Martina Hingis : biography

30 September 1980 –

Martina Hingis (born 30 September 1980) is a Swiss former professional tennis player who spent a total of 209 weeks as world no. 1. She won five Grand Slam singles titles (three Australian Opens, one Wimbledon, and one US Open). She also won nine Grand Slam women’s doubles titles, winning a calendar-year doubles Grand Slam in 1998, and one Grand Slam mixed doubles title.

Hingis set a series of "youngest-ever" records before ligament injuries in both ankles forced her to withdraw temporarily from professional tennis in 2002 at the age of 22. After several surgeries and long recuperations, Hingis returned to the WTA tour in 2006. She then climbed to world no. 6 and won three singles titles. On 1 November 2007, Hingis announced her retirement from tennis after testing positive for cocaine during Wimbledon in 2007. She denied using the drug, but decided not to appeal the imminent ban.

In June 2011, she was named one of the "30 Legends of Women’s Tennis: Past, Present and Future" by Time. In 2013 Hingis was elected into the International Tennis Hall of Fame.

Retirement

Hingis played an exhibition match at the Liverpool International tournament on 13 June 2008. Although this event was a warm-up for Wimbledon, it was not part of the WTA Tour. This allowed Hingis to participate without breaching the rules of her ban. In a rematch of their 1997 Wimbledon final, Hingis defeated Jana Novotná.

In 2009 Hingis took part in the BBC’s dancing competition, Strictly Come Dancing. She was the bookies’ favourite for the competition, but she went out in the first week after performing a Waltz and a Rumba. Despite vowing to win the competition, she promised to apply the same gritty approach to the dance show that had taken her to five grand slams on the tennis court. "Everything I do I do to win. I am very competitive."She also participated in a gameshow " Beat The Star" where a female contestant had to beat Hingis in dropping more peas into a narrow bottle to win the prize money. Hingis managed to first drop a pea into her bottle successfully but the contestant eventually beat her and walked away with the prize money.

2010

At the start of the year Hingis defeated former world number one Lindsay Davenport, and hinted at a possible return to tennis. In February, Martina announced she has committed to a full year with the World TeamTennis Tour in 2010. She had previously played for World Team Tennis in 2005 to assist her first comeback. Sparking thoughts that she was trying to come back to the WTA tour, she committed to playing at the Nottingham Masters. On 5 May 2010, it was announced that Anna Kournikova would reunite with her doubles partner Hingis. Kournikova was participating in competitive tennis for the first time in seven years, in the Invitational Ladies Doubles event at Wimbledon. Hingis also confirmed that she would play at the Tradition-ICAP Liverpool International championship in June 2010, preceding Wimbledon, Liverpool Daily Post. 13 May 2010 before playing in the Manchester Masters after Wimbledon. Liverpool like the Nottingham and Manchester Masters are organised by her management company Northern Vision. At the Nottingham Masters, Hingis faced Michaëlla Krajicek (twice), Olga Savchuk and Monika Wejnert. Hingis won just once in the event, against Wejnert. After the Nottingham event Billie Jean King stated that she believed that Hingis may return to the WTA Tour on the doubles circuit, after competing in the WTT.

During Wimbledon in an interview with doubles partner Anna Kournikova, Hingis stated that she will not be returning to the tour; she has had her comeback before and it was fun.

2011

On 5 June, Hingis, paired with Lindsay Davenport, won the Roland Garros Women’s Legends title, defeating Martina Navratilova and Jana Novotna in the final, 6–1, 6–2. Before facing Navratilova/Novotna, Hingis and Davenport won two round robin matches in the tournament: first against Gigi Fernandez / Natasha Zvereva (6–1 6–3), and then in the next match they prevailed over Andrea Temesvari / Sandrine Testud 6–3 6–7 and 10:0 in the Super tie-break.