Martina Hingis:

Top name in Tennis

There have been many stars in Tennis from time to time. Williams sisters, Maria Sharapova, Justin Henin, to name a few. Swiss tennis star Martina Hingis who spent a total of 209 weeks as World Number – 1, 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. She returned to the WTA tour in 2006 and then climbed to world number 6 and won three singles titles. On November 1, 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.

Hingis began playing tennis when she was two years old and entered her first tournament at age four. In 1993, 12-year-old Hingis became the youngest player to win a Grand Slam junior title: the girls’ singles at the French Open. In 1994, she retained her French Open junior title, won the girls’ singles title at Wimbledon and reached the final of the US Open.

She made her professional début in October 1994, two weeks after her 14th birthday. In January 1995, she became the youngest player to win a match at a Grand Slam tournament when she advanced to the second round of the Australian Open.

In 1996, Hingis became the youngest Grand Slam champion of all time and in 1997, she became the undisputed World No. 1 women’s tennis player. In 1998, Hingis won all four of the Grand Slam women’s doubles titles, only the fourth in women’s tennis history to do so and she became only the third woman to simultaneously hold the No. 1 ranking in both singles and doubles.

In February 2003, at the age of 22, Hingis announced her retirement from tennis. Hingis won 40 singles titles and 36 doubles events during her era.

She made an unsuccessful return in February 2005. She competed at the 2006 Australian Open and won the mixed doubles title with Mahesh Bhupathi of India. The week after the Australian Open, Hingis defeated World No. 4 Maria Sharapova in the semifinals of the Tier I Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo.