Martina Hingis

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**Martina Hingis**

Country	Switzerland
Residence	Trubbach, Switzerland, Wesley Chapel, Florida, USA
Date of birth	September 30, 1980 (age 26)
Place of birth	Košice, Slovakia
Height	170 cm (5 ft 7 in)
Weight	59 kg (130 lb)
Turned Pro	1994
Retired	2002; Comeback in 2006
Plays	Right; Two-handed backhand
Career Prize Money	$19,505,362 (4th in all-time rankings)
Singles
Career record:	524-120
Career titles:	42
Highest ranking:	No. 1 (March 31, 1997)
Grand Slam results
Australian Open	W (1997, 1998, 1999)
French Open	F (1997, 1999)
Wimbledon	W (1997)
U.S. Open	W (1997)
Doubles
Career record:	275-50
Career titles:	36
Highest ranking:	No. 1 (June 8, 1998)
Infobox last updated on: November 15, 2006.

Martina Hingis (born September 30, 1980 in Košice, Czechoslovakia, now Slovakia) is a former World No. 1 Swiss tennis player. Known as the "Swiss Miss," she has won five Grand Slam singles titles (three Australian Open, one Wimbledon, and one US Open). She has also won nine Grand Slam women's doubles titles, winning a calendar year Grand Slam in 1998, and one Grand Slam mixed doubles title. She set a series of "youngest-ever" records before ligament injuries in both of her ankles forced her to withdraw from professional tennis at the relatively young age of 22.

On November 29, 2005, after several surgeries and long recuperations, the 25-year-old Hingis announced that she would return to the WTA tour, starting her professional comeback at a low-key tournament in Gold Coast, Australia in January 2006. Since then, Hingis has climbed to No. 7 in the world rankings, won two titles (at the Tier I tournament in Rome and the Tier III tournament in Kolkata, India), was the runner-up in two tournaments (Tier I tournaments in Tokyo and Montreal), and qualified for the 2006 WTA Tour Championships in Madrid.

She is currently dating fellow tennis player Radek Štěpánek. [1]

1 Childhood and early career
2 Grand Slam success
3 Injuries and hiatus from tennis
4 Return to the game
5 Controversy
6 Grand Slam singles finals
- 6.1 Wins (5)
- 6.2 Runner-ups (7)
7 Performance timeline
8 WTA Tour singles titles (42), ITF Circuit singles titles (2)
9 Doubles (37)
10 WTA Tour career earnings
11 Notable matches
12 External links

[edit] Childhood and early career

Hingis was born to two accomplished tennis players: a Czech mother, Melanie Molitorová, and a Slovak father, Karol Hingis. Molitorová once ranked No. 10 among women in Czechoslovakia. Her father is a tennis trainer in Košice. They named their daughter 'Martina' (originally Martina Hingisová - Molitorová) after Martina Navrátilová. Hingis' parents divorced when she was a young girl. She moved with her mother to Moravia for a short period, then to Switzerland.

Hingis began hitting tennis balls 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 was ranked the World No. 1 junior player.

Hingis at US Open in 1995

She made her professional debut in October 1994, two weeks after her 14th birthday. In 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.

Hingis was twice rated among FHM magazine's 100 sexiest women, and her championship doubles partnership with tennis' glamour girl Anna Kournikova (two Grand Slam championships) in the late 1990s and early-2000s attracted a great deal of attention. Jestingly, they announced that they were "The Spice Girls of Tennis."

[edit] Grand Slam success

In 1996, Hingis became the youngest Wimbledon champion when she teamed with Helena Suková to win the women's doubles title at age 15 years and 9 months. She also won her first professional singles title that year at Filderstadt, Germany. She reached the singles quarterfinals at the 1996 Australian Open and the singles semifinals of the 1996 U.S. Open. Following her win at Filderstadt, Hingis defeated the reigning Australian Open champion and co-top ranked (with Steffi Graf) Monica Seles 6-2, 6-0 in the final at Oakland. Hingis then lost to Graf 6-4, 4-6, 6-0, 4-6, 6-0 at the year-end WTA Tour Championships.

In January 1997, Hingis became the youngest Grand Slam singles winner in the 20th century by winning the Australian Open at age 16 years and 3 months. In March, she became the youngest ever player to attain the World No. 1 ranking. And in July, she became the youngest singles champion at Wimbledon since Lottie Dod in 1887. She won the U.S. Open title over another up-and-coming player, Venus Williams, in the final. The only Grand Slam singles title she failed to win that year was the French Open, where she lost in the final to Iva Majoli.

In 1998, Hingis won all four of the Grand Slam women's doubles titles (the Australian Open with Mirjana Lucic, and the other three events with Jana Novotná), and she became only the third woman to simultaneously hold the No. 1 ranking in both singles and doubles. She also retained her Australian Open singles title by beating Conchita Martínez in straight sets in the final. Hingis, however, lost in the final of the U.S. Open to Lindsay Davenport. Davenport ended an 80-week stretch Hingis had enjoyed as the No. 1 singles player in October 1998, but Hingis finished the year by beating Davenport in the final of the WTA Tour Championships.

1999 saw Hingis win her third successive Australian Open singles crown as well as the doubles title (with teammate Anna Kournikova). She then reached the French Open final and was three points away from victory in the second set against Steffi Graf, but ended up losing 4-6, 7-5, 6-2. During the match, Hingis had infuriated an already partisan crowd (the reason had been Hingis statements before the match - see under Controversy) by arguing with the umpire over several line calls (crossing the net in one instance), taking a bathroom break early in the final set, and twice delivering a rare underhand serve on match point. In tears after the match, Hingis was comforted by her mother as she returned to the court for the trophy ceremony. After a shock first-round 6-2, 6-0 loss to Jelena Dokic at Wimbledon, Hingis bounced back to reach her third consecutive U.S. Open final, where she lost to Serena Williams. Hingis won a total of seven singles titles that year and reclaimed the No. 1 singles ranking. She also reached the finals of the WTA Tour Championships, but lost 6-4, 6-2 to Davenport.

In 2000, Hingis and Mary Pierce were runners-up in the Australian Open women's doubles tournament.

In 2001, Hingis won the Hopman Cup along side Roger Federer.

[edit] Injuries and hiatus from tennis

Hingis' three-year hold on the Australian Open singles title came to an end in 2000 when she lost in the final to Lindsay Davenport 6-1, 7-5. Although she did not win a Grand Slam singles tournament that year, she kept the year end No. 1 ranking because of nine tournament championships, including the WTA Tour Championships where she won both in singles and doubles.

Hingis reached her fifth consecutive Australian Open final in 2001, where she lost to Jennifer Capriati 6-4, 6-3. She briefly ended her coaching relationships with her mother Melanie early in the year but had a change of heart two months later just before the French Open. Hingis underwent surgery on her right ankle in October 2001.

Coming back from injury, Hingis won the Australian Open doubles final at the start of 2002 (again teaming with Kournikova) and reached a sixth straight Australian Open final in singles, again facing Capriati. Hingis led by a set and 4-0 and had a few match points but lost 4-6, 7-6, 6-2. In May 2002, she needed another ankle ligament operation, this time on her left ankle. After that, she continued to struggle with injuries and was not able to recapture her best form.

In 2003, at the age of 22, Hingis announced her retirement from tennis. In several interviews, she indicated she was attending an advanced English course at AKAD in Zürich to broaden her career opportunities.

During this segment of her tennis career, Hingis won 40 singles titles and 36 doubles events. She held the World No. 1 singles ranking for a total of 209 weeks (third most following Steffi Graf and Martina Navratilova). In 2005, TENNIS Magazine put her in 22nd place in its list of 40 Greatest Players of the TENNIS era.

In February 2005, Hingis made an unsuccessful return to competition at an event in Pattaya, Thailand, where she lost to Germany's Marlene Weingartner in the first round. After the loss, she claimed that she had no further plans for a comeback.

[edit] Return to the game

Hingis resurfaced in July 2005, playing singles, doubles, and mixed doubles in World Team Tennis and notching up singles victories over two top 100 players. She also shut out Martina Navrátilová in singles on July 7th. With these promising results behind her, Hingis announced on November 29 her return to the WTA Tour in 2006.

Her Grand Slam comeback debut was at the 2006 Australian Open, where she reached the quarterfinals before losing to Kim Clijsters, the second seed. However, Hingis won the mixed doubles title with Mahesh Bhupathi of India. This was her first career Grand Slam mixed doubles title and fifteenth overall (5 singles, 9 women's doubles, 1 mixed doubles).

On May 19, 2006, Hingis posted her 500th career singles match victory in the quarterfinals of the Tier I Italian Open in Rome, beating top 20 player Flavia Pennetta, and two days later won the tournament. This was her 41st WTA tour singles title and first in more than four years. Hingis then reached the quarterfinals at the French Open, losing to Clijsters, and the third round at Wimbledon, losing to Ai Sugiyama. Her U.S. Open return was short lived, losing in the second round 6-2, 6-4 to Virginie Razzano, who was ranked outside the top 100.

In her first tournament since the U.S. Open, Hingis won the second title of her comeback at the Tier III Sunfeast Open in Kolkata, India. She defeated unseeded Russian Olga Poutchkova 6-0, 6-4 in the final after defeating Sania Mirza 6-1, 6-0 in a semifinal. The following week in Seoul, Hingis notched her 50th match win of the year before losing in the second round to Mirza 4-6, 6-0, 6-4.

During her 8 months back on the WTA tour, Hingis has reached three Tier I finals - the first in Tokyo (falling to Elena Dementieva 6-2, 6-0, after defeating Maria Sharapova in a semifinal), then in Rome (winning the title over Dinara Safina 6-2, 7-5), and in Montreal (falling to Ana Ivanovic 6-2, 6-3). She has beaten several top players in her comeback, including Sharapova, Lindsay Davenport, Dementieva, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Nadia Petrova and Venus Williams.

Hingis qualified for the end of year WTA Tour Championships in Madrid as the eighth seed. In her three round robin matches, she lost in three sets to both Justine Henin-Hardenne and Amelie Mauresmo but defeated Nadia Petrova 6-4, 3-6, 6-3.

Hingis is currently ranked No. 7 in the WTA rankings, which is based on the previous 52 weeks of results. In the WTA Champions Race, a system that bases rankings purely on results during the current calendar year, she is ranked No. 8. Hingis is also ranked No. 8 on the WTA Money list.

[edit] Controversy

Hingis is also well known for usually being outspoken and "sharp tongued." During her career, Hingis has made a number of statements about her fellow players that have subsequently become the focus of attention and the source of controversy.

Referring obliquely to Amélie Mauresmo's lesbianism on the eve of their 1999 Australian Open final, Hingis told reporters, "She's here with her girlfriend. She's half a man already."

After the Williams sisters (Venus and Serena) had complained of discrimination against them, Hingis told Time Magazine in 2001: "Being black only helps them. Many times they get sponsors because they are black. And they have had a lot of advantages because they can always say, 'It's racism.' They can always come back and say, 'Because we are this color, things happen.'" In the U.S., this comment garnered considerable attention, although elsewhere her comment was mostly greeted with indifference.

At the peak of the Williams sisters and Hingis' competitive and fierce rivalry, Hingis stated in a press conference during the 1999 U.S. Open referring to the sisters' remarks, "They always have big mouths. They always talk a lot. It's happened before, so it's gonna happen again. I don't really worry about that."
On the long-dominant German player, Steffi Graf, Hingis said, "Steffi has had some results in the past, but it's a faster, more athletic game now than when she played. She is old now. Her time has passed." (Hingis made this comment in 1998 while Graf was on an injury-related hiatus from tennis.)

Responding in a 1999 press conference on why she terminated her doubles partnership with former Wimbledon champ Jana Novotna, Hingis remarked, "She's old and slow."

[edit] Grand Slam singles finals

[edit] Wins (5)

Year	Championship	Opponent in Final	Score in Final
1997	Australian Open	Mary Pierce	6-2, 6-2
1997	Wimbledon	Jana Novotná	2-6, 6-3, 6-3
1997	U.S. Open	Venus Williams	6-0, 6-4
1998	Australian Open (2)	Conchita Martínez	6-3, 6-3
1999	Australian Open (3)	Amélie Mauresmo	6-2, 6-3

[edit] Runner-ups (7)

Year	Championship	Opponent in Final	Score in Final
1997	French Open	Iva Majoli	6-4, 6-2
1998	U.S. Open	Lindsay Davenport	6-3, 7-5
1999	French Open (2)	Steffi Graf	4-6, 7-5, 6-2
1999	U.S. Open (2)	Serena Williams	6-3, 7-6
2000	Australian Open	Lindsay Davenport	6-1, 7-5
2001	Australian Open (2)	Jennifer Capriati	6-4, 6-3
2002	Australian Open (3)	Jennifer Capriati	4-6, 7-6, 6-2

[edit] Performance timeline

To prevent confusion and double counting, information in this table is updated only once a tournament or the player's participation in the tournament has concluded. This table is current through the WTA Tour Championships, which ended on November 12, 2006.

Tournament	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	Career SR	Career Win-Loss
Australian Open	A	2R	QF	W	W	W	F	F	F	A	A	A	QF	3 / 9	48-6
French Open	A	3R	3R	F	SF	F	SF	SF	A	A	A	A	QF	0 / 8	35-8
Wimbledon	A	1R	4R	W	SF	1R	QF	1R	A	A	A	A	3R	1 / 8	21-7
US Open	A	4R	SF	W	F	F	SF	SF	4R	A	A	A	2R	1 / 9	41-8
Grand Slam SR	0 / 0	0 / 4	0 / 4	3 / 4	1 / 4	1 / 4	0 / 4	0 / 4	0 / 2	0 / 0	0 / 0	0 / 0	0 / 4	5 / 34	N/A
Grand Slam Win-Loss	0-0	6-4	14-4	27-1	23-3	19-3	20-4	16-4	9-2	0-0	0-0	0-0	11-4	N/A	145-29
WTA Tour Championships	A	A	F	QF	W	F	W	A	A	A	A	A	RR	2 / 6	16-5
Tokyo	A	A	SF	W	F	W	W	F	W	A	A	A	F	4 / 8	28-4
Indian Wells	A	A	A	A	W	QF	F	SF	F	A	A	A	SF	1 / 6	25-5
Miami	A	A	2R	W	SF	SF	W	SF	QF	A	A	A	3R	2 / 8	28-6
Charleston	A	A	2R	W	A	W	A	F	A	A	A	A	A	2 / 4	15-2
Berlin	A	2R	2R	A	QF	W	SF	SF	A	A	A	A	QF	1 / 7	18-6
Rome	A	A	F	A	W	SF	A	SF	A	A	A	A	W	2 / 5	21-3
San Diego¹	A	A	A	W	SF	W	QF	SF	A	A	A	A	QF	2 / 6	16-4
Montreal/Toronto	A	3R	A	A	SF	W	W	A	QF	A	A	A	F	2 / 6	21-4
Moscow	A	A	A	A	A	A	W	QF	1R	A	A	A	A	1 / 3	5-2
Zurich	2R	2R	F	QF	A	F	W	A	A	A	A	A	QF	1 / 7	16-6
Tournaments played	4	13	18	17	18	20	20	18	12	0	0	1	20	N/A	161
Finals reached	0	1	5	13	7	13	13	6	4	0	0	0	4	N/A	66
Tournaments Won	0	0	2	12	5	7	9	3	2	0	0	0	2	N/A	42
Hardcourt Win-Loss	2-1	7-5	15-5	38-1	32-8	41-7	43-6	39-7	28-8	0-0	0-0	0-1	28-12	N/A	273-61
Clay Win-Loss	0-0	7-3	10-5	11-1	16-2	19-2	12-2	17-5	2-1	0-0	0-0	0-0	14-3	N/A	108-24
Grass Win-Loss	0-0	0-1	3-1	7-0	5-1	0-1	7-1	0-1	0-0	0-0	0-0	0-0	2-1	N/A	24-7
Carpet Win-Loss	3-2	4-3	18-5	15-3	8-2	11-3	15-1	4-2	4-1	0-0	0-0	0-0	9-3	N/A	91-25
Overall Win-Loss	5-3	18-12	46-16	71-5	61-13	71-13	77-10	60-15	34-10	0-0	0-0	0-1	53-19	N/A	496-117²
Year End Ranking	87	16	4	1	2	1	1	4	10	-	-	-	7	N/A	N/A

A = did not participate in the tournament

SR = the ratio of the number of singles tournaments won to the number of those tournaments played

¹ The San Diego tournament achieved Tier I status only in 2004.

² If ITF women's circuit (Hardcourt: 12-2; Carpet: 6-1) and Fed Cup (10-0) participations are included, overall win-loss record stands at 524-120.

[edit] WTA Tour singles titles (42), ITF Circuit singles titles (2)

Legend (Singles)

Tier I (16)

Tier II (15)

Tier III (4)

Tier IV (0)

Grand Slam Title (5)

WTA Tour Championship (2)

ITF Circuit (2)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent in the final	Score
1.	1993-10-24	Langenthal, Switzerland	Carpet	Sophie Georges	2-6, 7-5, 7-6(4)
2.	1996-03-10	Prostejov, Czech Republic	Hard Indoors	Barbara Paulus	6-1, 6-4
3.	1996-10-13	Filderstadt, Germany	Carpet	Anke Huber	6-2, 3-6, 6-3
4.	1996-11-10	Oakland, USA	Carpet	Monica Seles	6-2, 6-0
5.	1997-01-12	Sydney, Australia	Hard	Jennifer Capriati	6-1, 5-7, 6-1
6.	1997-01-26	Australian Open, Melbourne, Australia	Hard	Mary Pierce	6-2, 6-2
7.	1997-02-02	Tokyo (Pan Pacific), Japan	Carpet	Steffi Graf	Walkover
8.	1997-02-16	Paris, France	Carpet	Anke Huber	6-3, 3-6, 6-3
9.	1997-03-30	Key Biscayne, USA	Hard	Monica Seles	6-2, 6-1
10.	1997-04-06	Hilton Head Island, USA	Clay	Monica Seles	3-6, 6-3, 7-6(5)
11.	1997-07-06	Wimbledon, United Kingdom	Grass	Jana Novotná	2-6, 6-3, 6-3
12.	1997-07-27	Stanford, USA	Hard	Conchita Martínez	6-0, 6-2
13.	1997-08-03	San Diego, USA	Hard	Monica Seles	7-6(4), 6-4
14.	1997-09-07	US Open, New York, USA	Hard	Venus Williams	6-0, 6-4
15.	1997-10-12	Filderstadt, Germany	Carpet	Lisa Raymond	6-2, 6-4
16.	1997-11-16	Philadelphia, USA	Carpet	Lindsay Davenport	7-5, 6-7(7), 7-6(4)
17.	1998-02-01	Australian Open, Melbourne, Australia	Hard	Conchita Martínez	6-3, 6-3
18.	1998-03-15	Indian Wells, USA	Hard	Lindsay Davenport	6-3, 6-4
19.	1998-05-04	Hamburg, Germany	Clay	Jana Novotná	6-3, 7-5
20.	1998-05-17	Rome, Italy	Clay	Venus Williams	6-3, 2-6, 6-3
21.	1998-11-22	WTA Tour Championships, New York, USA	Carpet	Lindsay Davenport	7-5, 4-6, 6-4, 6-2
22.	1999-01-31	Australian Open, Melbourne, Australia	Hard	Amélie Mauresmo	6-2, 6-3
23.	1999-02-07	Tokyo (Pan Pacific), Japan	Carpet	Amanda Coetzer	6-2, 6-1
24.	1999-04-04	Hilton Head Island, USA	Clay	Anna Kournikova	6-4, 6-3
25.	1999-05-16	Berlin, Germany	Clay	Julie Halard-Decugis	6-0, 6-1
26.	1999-08-08	San Diego, USA	Hard	Venus Williams	6-4, 6-0
27.	1999-08-22	Toronto, Canada	Hard	Monica Seles	6-4, 6-4
28.	1999-10-10	Filderstadt, Germany	Carpet	Mary Pierce	6-4, 6-1
29.	2000-02-06	Tokyo (Pan Pacific), Japan	Carpet	Sandrine Testud	6-3, 7-5
30.	2000-04-02	Key Biscayne, USA	Hard	Lindsay Davenport	6-3, 6-2
31.	2000-05-07	Hamburg, Germany	Clay	Arantxa Sánchez-Vicario	6-3, 6-3
32.	2000-06-25	's Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands	Grass	Ruxandra Dragomir	6-2, 3-0 retired
33.	2000-08-20	Montreal, Canada	Hard	Serena Williams	0-6, 6-3, 3-0 retired
34.	2000-10-08	Filderstadt, Germany	Carpet	Kim Clijsters	6-0, 6-3
35.	2000-10-15	Zurich, Switzerland	Hard	Lindsay Davenport	6-4, 4-6, 7-5
36.	2000-10-29	Moscow, Russia	Carpet	Anna Kournikova	6-3, 6-1
37.	2000-11-19	WTA Tour Championships, New York, USA	Carpet	Monica Seles	6-7(5), 6-4, 6-4
38.	2001-01-08	Sydney, Australia	Hard	Lindsay Davenport	6-3, 4-6, 7-5
39.	2001-02-18	Doha, Qatar	Hard	Sandrine Testud	6-3, 6-2
40.	2001-02-25	Dubai, United Arab Emirates	Hard	Nathalie Tauziat	6-4, 6-4
41.	2002-01-13	Sydney, Australia	Hard	Meghann Shaughnessy	6-2, 6-3
42.	2002-02-03	Tokyo (Pan Pacific), Japan	Carpet	Monica Seles	7-6(6), 4-6, 6-3
43.	2006-05-21	Rome, Italy	Clay	Dinara Safina	6-2, 7-5
44.	2006-09-24	Kolkata, India	Carpet	Olga Poutchkova	6-0, 6-4

[edit] Doubles (37)

Legend (Doubles)

Tier I (13)

Tier II (12)

Tier III (0)