Severe injuries is what brought down tennis star Martina Hingis
The worst nightmare faced by any professional tennis player is getting injured and not being able to play properly. In fact, this happens with all professional athletes around the globe. Apart from being an extremely competitive and risky business, a professional career based on sports is highly unpredictable and the slightest mishaps can bring it to an end. In many cases, players have made come-backs after recovering from injuries but their game has never been the same after their recovery.
Out of the many professional tennis players who have faced a downfall in their tennis career due to some kind of injury, Martina Hingis is one of them. This Swiss professional tennis player has had an amazing career by making a series of youngest ever records before she had to temporarily quit the game due to ligament injuries in both her ankles in 2002. After this mishap, Hingis returned to tennis in 2006. She remained as the world’s number one player for 209 weeks during her career and won a total of fourteen Grand Slam titles which included five in the singles category and nine in the doubles. Most of this glory was achieved by her in the years prior to her injury.
When Hingis first suffered from ligament injuries in 2002, she declared that she was about to retire from her career of tennis because she was going through too much pain and could not bear with it. She said that she wanted to concentrate on things other than tennis and wanted to play the sport only for fun. But her passion and love for the game was too strong for her to stay away from. When she made her comeback in 2006, she managed to climb up to the world number six ranking. However, it was quite evident to the world that she would not be playing for long this time.
In 2007, Hingis was being troubled by her injuries once more. This time, along with her ankle problem, she developed a hip injury. Due to this, she had to withdraw from the German Open as she had been participating at that time. With her inability to play properly, Martina lost her chance to participate in the French Open which has been the only Grand Slam singles title which had managed to elude her. Hence, the injuries suffered by Hingis were the major reason as to why her reign as an amazing tennis player had gradually come to an end.
Moreover, during Wimbledon 2007, the tennis princess was positive for cocaine. She claimed to have never taken the drug, as she had always been afraid of the harmful side effects caused by drug abuse. However, since the test had been positive, Hingis was forcefully banned from playing professional tennis for the next two years by the International Tennis Federation (ITF). As soon as this ban was imposed on her, she declared her retirement from the sport and this time for good.
Martina was known in the international tennis community to be very outspoken. She openly said whatever was on her mind and did not take into consideration other people’s feelings. In 1998, she made a comment about the German tennis player Steffi Graf, saying that the game of tennis had become faster and more athletic and that Graf was now old and slow, so her time was almost over. In 1999, during a press conference, Hingis was asked as to why she had terminated her doubles partnership with former Wimbledon champion Jana Novotna. Hingis replied to this by saying “She is old and slow”. It is ironic that after publically calling other professional tennis players old and slow, it was Hingis herself who became slow at a very young age because of serious ligament injuries in her ankle.
It is quite clear that injuries play a very important role in deciding the fate of a professional tennis player. An injury can bring down one’s sporting career, which may have taken years to flourish, in no time. This is one of the reasons as to why being a tennis player is an extremely unpredictable career.
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