Martina Hingis was born on September 30, 1980 in Košice, Czechoslovakia, now Slovakia. She 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 spent a total of 209 weeks as World No. 1 and set a series of "youngest-ever" records before ligament injuries in both ankles forced her to withdraw from professional tennis at the relatively early 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. 6 in the world rankings, won three titles (at the Tier I tournament in Rome, the Tier III tournament in Kolkata, India, and the Tier I tournament in Tokyo), was the runner-up in three tournaments (Tier I tournaments in Tokyo and Montreal and the Tier III in Gold Coast), and qualified for the 2006 WTA Tour Championships in Madrid. She was engaged to fellow tennis player Radek Štěpánek but they have since split up. She has been coached by her mother, Melanie Molitor, a former tennis pro. However, she currently does not have a coach. Childhood and Early Career Martina Hingis was born to two accomplished tennis players: a Czech mother, Melanie Molitorová, and a Hungarian-Slovak father living in Košice (Slovakia), Karol Hingis (Károly Hingis in Hungarian).[5][6][7] Molitorová once ranked No. 10 among women in Czechoslovakia. Her father who was rated even number 19[8] in the tennis rankings of Czechoslovakia is today a tennis trainer in Košice. They named their daughter 'Martina' (originally Martina Hingisová) 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. Martina 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. 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. Martina 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."
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In 1996, Martina 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 6-3, 4-6, 6-0, 4-6, 6-0 at the year-end WTA Tour Championships. Hingis's best year was 1997 when she was the undisputed world No. 1 women's tennis player. She started the year by winning the warm-up tournament in Sydney. She then became the youngest Grand Slam singles winner in the 20th century by winning the Australian Open at age 16 years and 3 months (beating former champion Mary Pierce in the final). In March, she became the youngest top ranked player in history. In July, she became the youngest singles champion at Wimbledon since Lottie Dod in 1887 by beating Jana Novotná in the final. She then defeated another up-and-coming player, Venus Williams, in the final of the U.S. Open. The only Grand Slam singles title that Martina Hingis failed to win in 1997 was the French Open, where she lost in the final to Iva Majoli. In 1998, Martina Hingis won all four of the Grand Slam women's doubles titles, only the fourth in women's tennis history to do so, (the Australian Open with Mirjana Lucic and the other three events with 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 Martina 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 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 final of the WTA Tour Championships, where she lost to Davenport 6-4, 6-2. In 2000, Martina Hingis again found herself in both the singles and doubles finals at the Australian Open. This time, however, she lost both. Her three-year hold on the singles championship ended when she lost to Davenport 6-1, 7-5. Later, Hingis and Pierce, her new doubles partner, lost to Lisa Raymond and Renee Stubbs. Hingis captured the French Open women's doubles title with Pierce and produced consistent results in singles tournaments throughout the year. Although she did not win a Grand Slam singles tournament, she kept the year end No. 1 ranking because of nine tournament championships, including the WTA Tour Championships where she won the singles and doubles titles. Injuries and Hiatus from Tennis In 2001, Switzerland, with Martina Hingis and Roger Federer on its team, won the Hopman Cup. Hingis was undefeated in singles during the event, defeating Tamarine Tanasugarn, Nicole Pratt, Amanda Coetzer, and Monica Seles. Martina 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, Martina 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 four 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, Martina 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 (fourth most following Steffi Graf, Martina Navratilova, and Chris Evert). In 2005, TENNIS Magazine put her in 22nd place in its list of 40 Greatest Players of the TENNIS era. Return to the Game 2005 In February 2005, Martina 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. Hingis, however, resurfaced in July, playing singles, doubles, and mixed doubles in World Team Tennis and notching up singles victories over two top 100 players and shutting 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. 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, Martina 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, Martina 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, Martina 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, Martina 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 Ivanović 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. Martina 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. Martina Hingis ended the year ranked No. 7 in the WTA rankings, which is based on the previous 52 weeks of results. In the 2006 Race to the Sony Ericsson Championships rankings, she also finished No. 7. She finished 8th in prize money earnings during 2006 (U.S. $1,159,537).
Martina Hingis started 2007 by reaching the final of a Tier III event, the Australian Hardcourt Championships in Gold Coast, Australia, losing to Dinara Safina of Russia 6-3, 3-6, 7-5. The next week at the Medibank International in Sydney, Hingis lost her first round match to Jelena Janković in three sets. At the 2007 Australian Open, Martina Hingis won her first three rounds without losing a set before defeating China's Na Li in the fourth round 4-6, 6-3, 6-0. Hingis then lost a quarterfinal match to Kim Clijsters 3-6, 6-4, 6-3. This was the second consecutive year that Hingis had lost to Clijsters in the quarterfinals of the Australian Open and the third time in the last five Grand Slam tournaments that Clijsters had eliminated Hingis in the quarterfinals. Martina Hingis won her next tournament, the Tier I Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo, Japan, defeating Ana Ivanović in the final 6-4, 6-2. This was Hingis's record fifth singles title at this event. Three weeks later, Hingis lost for the second time this year to Janković in the quarterfinals of the Dubai Duty Free Women's Open. At the Qatar Total Open in Doha, Hingis lost to Daniela Hantuchova 1-6, 6-4, 6-4 in the quarterfinals after being up a set and 4-1 (40-0) in the second set. In women's doubles, Hingis teamed with Maria Kirilenko to win the title, defeating Agnes Szavay and Vladimira Uhlirova in the final 6-1, 6-1. At the Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells, California, which was the second Tier I tournament of the year, Hingis again lost to Hantuchova, this time in the fourth round 6-4, 6-3. Hingis was up a service break in both sets but, as in Doha, could not hold her lead. At the Tier I Sony Ericsson Open in Key Biscayne, Florida, Hingis again failed to reach the quarterfinals, losing in the third round to Agnieszka Radwańska of Poland 4-6, 6-3, 6-2. Her next tournament was the Qatar Telecom German Open, where she fell in the third round to compatriot Patty Schnyder 6-4, 6-0. A hip injury that troubled her at the German Open (she took painkillers for her matches) caused her to withdraw from the Telecom Italia Masters Roma, where she was the defending champion, and the French Open, the only Grand Slam singles title that has eluded her. In her first round match at Wimbledon Martina Hingis saved two match points to defeat British wildcard Naomi Cavaday. Afterwards it emerged Martina had not fully recovered from the hip injury that prevented her from playing in Roland Garros.[10] In the third round Hingis lost to Laura Granville of the United States 6-4, 6-2 and claimed afterwards she should not have entered the tournament. In San Diego, Martina defeated Michaella Krajicek 7-5 6-2 before falling to an in-form Patty Schnyder 6-1 6-7(4) 6-3. Hingis was leading 3-1 in the final set before losing 5 straight games. In August 2007, Hingis lost to Sania Mirza 6-2, 2-6, 6-4 in a second-round match of East West Bank Classic WTA Tournament. Her next tournament was the last grand slam of the year, the U.S. Open, the same Open that she won exactly ten years ago for the first time. Fortunately for Hingis, she got stuck in the bottom, less competitive part of the draw. After winning in the first two rounds, many commentators had been saying that if she continued to play the way she was, she had a chance of making the semi-finals with her variety of shots instead of the hard hitting players that make up most of the womens tour. If she won in the third round, her likely opponent would have been fourth seeded, and 2004 champion, Svetlana Kuznetsova, who has been known to be great when she plays well, but very inconsistent. With the recent exit of last years champion and number two seed, Maria Sharapova, the bottom half had been blown wide open, with anyone having a chance to make the finals, including Martina Hingis. Unfortunately, Hingis crashed out of the third round losing to Belurusian Teenager Victoria Azarenka 6-3,1-6,0-6; however, she will gain points for improving by one round from her shock second round exit last year. In September 2007, Hingis played at her debut tournament in Beijing. She had a comfortable first round win over Chinese youngster Tian Tian Sun 6-2,6-3; however, her winning form was halted when she lost in the second round to Chinese star Shuai Peng in straight sets 7-5,6-1. Hingis' next tournament will be in Stuttgart, Germany with the likes of Justine Henin, Serena Williams and Ana Ivanovic. The Swiss star has won this tournament 4 times but has moved from Filderstadt when she last played her losing to Dementieva in 2002 eventually leading to her premature retirement. Controversies 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.
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