Martina Hingis

About Martina Hingis

Martina Hingis (German pronunciation: [marˈtiːna ˈhɪŋɡɪs]; born 30 September 1980) is a Swiss former professional tennis player. She spent a total of 209 weeks as the singles world No. 1 and 90 weeks as doubles world No. 1, holding both No. 1 rankings simultaneously for 29 weeks. She won five Grand Slam singles titles, thirteen Grand Slam women's doubles titles, winning a calendar-year doubles Grand Slam in 1998, and seven Grand Slam mixed doubles titles; for a combined total of twenty-five major titles. In addition, she won the season-ending WTA Finals two times in singles and three times in doubles, an Olympic silver medal, and a record seventeen Tier I singles titles.

Hingis set a series of "youngest-ever" records during the 1990s, including youngest-ever Grand Slam champion and youngest-ever world No. 1. Before ligament injuries in both ankles forced her to withdraw temporarily from professional tennis in early 2003, at the age of 22, she had won 40 singles titles and 36 doubles titles and, according to Forbes, was the highest-paid female athlete in the world for five consecutive years, 1997 to 2001. After several surgeries and long recoveries, Hingis returned to the WTA tour in 2006, climbing to world No. 6, winning two Tier I tournaments, and also receiving the Laureus World Sports Award for Comeback of the Year. This was the era of big hitters 5'10" and over like Serena Williams, Venus Williams, Kim Clijsters, Maria Sharapova, Lindsey Davenport, etc, and Hingis was often overmatched and needed to play perfect tennis to win.

She retired in November 2007 after being hampered by a hip injury for several months and testing positive for a metabolite of cocaine during that year's Wimbledon Championships, which led to a two-year suspension from the sport. Hingis has denied ever taking cocaine or any drug. She returned in 2013 as a doubles specialist and finally retired for good in 2017.