Martina Hingis: The Tennis Prodigy Brought Down by Injuries and Drug Scandals
Born on September 30th, 1980, in Kosice, Slovakia, Martina Hingis was born into a family with a strong tennis background. Both her parents, mother, Melanie Molitorova, and father, Karoly Hingis, were professional tennis players and Molitorova would go on to oversee Martina’s development as a player throughout her daughter’s career. Martina first hit the tennis ball when she was only two, and by the age of four, she had already played her first tournament. In 1993, Hingis took her first Grand Slam junior title, gaining the distinction of becoming the least aged player ever to have taken the girls’ singles trophy at the French Open at the tender age of just 12.
The following year, Hingis successfully defended her French Open junior title and added the 1994 Wimbledon girls’ singles title to her rapidly burgeoning trophy box. That year, in October, Hingis joined the professional circuit at the age of 14, and in 1995 became the least aged player to have triumphed at a Grand Slam clash, when she proceeded to the second stage of the Australian Open. 1996 was a breakthrough season for Hingis. She landed the Wimbledon women’s doubles title (paired with Helena Suková) aged 15 years and nine months to become the youngest ever Grand Slam victor in the history of tennis. Hingis then took the singles title in Filderstadt, Germany, and made it to the quarterfinals of the 1996 Australian Open and the semifinals of the year’s U.S. Open singles events. She also bagged the Oakland title after overcoming the legendary Monica Seles and was defeated by Steffi Graf at the season-ending WTA Tour championships.
The following year, Hingis climbed to the very pinnacle of the WTA world rankings, having commenced the 1997 campaign with a win at the inaugural event in Sydney. Hingis took the professional tennis platform by storm after grabbing the Australian Open, Wimbledon and U.S Open trophies one after the other and making history in the process. Her triumph at the Australian Open made Martina the 20th century’s least-aged Grand Slam singles title winner at the age of 16 years and three months. Hingis had also battled her way to the French Open final, where Steffi Graf was able to overcome the apparently unbeatable youth. In 1998, the European’s stunning form continued and she entered the record books after winning each of the four Grand Slam women’s doubles trophies. Hingis concluded the year having successfully defended her Australian Open crown, and also won the WTA Tour Championships trophy. The next year, Hingis continued her dominance of women’s tennis by clinching seven singles WTA trophies and grabbing the Australian Open title for the third year in a row to retain her world number one ranking. Despite being unable to add another Grand Slam title to her name in 2000, she, however, managed to hold on to her number one ranking as a consequence of having won 9 WTA titles.
In the following years, recurring injuries damaged Martina’s consistency on the court. In 2001, Hingis was part of Hopman Cup winning Swiss side and managed to reach the Australian Open final where she lost to Jennifer Capriati. In 2002, Hingis returned from injury to triumph at the Australian Open doubles title, but once again lost out in the Australian Open singles final event to Jennifer Capriati. In February 2003, after persistent injury problems, Martina Hingis stated her desire to retire from the professional circuit. However, she decided to make a comeback to the WTA circuit in 2006 and triumphed at the year’s Australian Open mixed doubles event. She also won that year’s singles tournament in Rome and the Sunfeast Open event in India. The next year, Hingis’ progress was once again halted by injury, and she announced her retirement from tennis for the second time in November that year. In 2008, Hingis also made news for all the wrong reasons when she failed a drugs test at Wimbledon that year and as a consequence the ITF banned her from the WTA Tour for two years. However, Hingis remains adamant over her innocence and continues to participate in exhibition matches as rumours of her possible return to the professional grid continue to linger, even though in a BBC Radio interview in 2008, she declared her tennis career as over. "No, tennis has been my life but there is life after tennis,” she said.
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