Martina Hingis Bio

Martina Hingis

 

One of the most noted figures in female tennis, Martina Hingis has won five Grand Slam titles and once held the undisputed slot as the world’s number one female tennis star. Injuries forced her to retire twice, however, and Hingis has made headlines recently by following in the dubious footsteps of many athletes and testing positive for drugs.

 

Martina Hingis was born September 30, 1980 in Kosice, Slovakia. Her mother is Czech tennis star Melanie Molitorova, while her father is Hungarian-Slovak tennis player Karol Hingis. Divorcing when she was very young, Hingis lived with her mother in Moravia followed by Trubbach, Switzerland. With tennis in her blood, Hingis began playing when she was only two years old.

 

When she was 12, she earned the prestigious honor of being the youngest player to secure a Grand Slam junior title. Two years later, at 14 years old, Hingis was ranked the number one junior player in the world.

 

Her professional career came shortly after. By 1995, she was the youngest player to win any match at a Grand Slam tournament. And her dominance continued throughout the 90s. In 1996, she and Helena Sukova took the Wimbledon women’s doubles title. Again, she was the youngest person to ever do so.

 

And she only seemed to improve. 1997 was far and away her best year. Holding the slot as the number one female tennis player in the world, she was the Gram Slam winner at only sixteen years old. Taking down other stars such as Mary Pierce and Venus Williams helped add to her tennis clout.

 

In 1998 alone, she took four Grand Slam titles. The next three years, however, saw Hingis’ dominance falter. Although she retained the number one slot, stars such as Serena Williams proved Hingis was beatable. Her career was further hurt in 2001 when she had to undergo ankle surgery from the continuous strain.

 

She came back, but another surgery on her other ankle hindered her career too badly. At only 22 years old, Hingis decided to retire from professional tennis. She made a quasi-comeback in 2005 but returned to retirement when she lost to Marlene Weingartner in a first-round match. She emerged again, however, in 2006 with her intent to partake in the WTA Tour.

 

She did mange to take down some big names such as Maria Sharapova, but she still finished out the year at number seven. On November 1, 2007, she stated at a press conference her intent to retire permanently from tennis.

 

Inciting controversy, Hingis was tested for drug use during the 2007 Wimbledon, and the results came back positive for cocaine. She is not contesting the results but maintains her innocence.

 

Outside of tennis, Hingis also gained attention for her good looks. She has made the FHM 100 Sexiest Women list twice. She also played doubles with Anna Kournikova, which created a great deal of media buzz. They were even nicknamed “The Spice Girls of Tennis.”

 

On a less positive note, many of Hingis’ fellow tennis stars know her for her sharp and negative comments such as her blunt dismissal of Steffi Graf as one whose “time has passed.”

 

In her personal life, Hingis has been romantically linked to Sergio Garcia, Sol Campbell, and currently a man named Alexander. 




     del.icio.us     Stumble It