October 31 2009
Sports Review - Martina Hingis

Martina Hingis (born 30 September 1980 in Košice, Slovakia, then Czechoslovakia) is a retired professional tennis player who spent a total of 209 weeks as World No. 1. She won five Grand Slam singles titles (three Australian Opens, one Wimbledon, and one US Open). She also won nine Grand Slam women's doubles titles, winning a calendar year doubles Grand Slam in 1998, and one Grand Slam mixed doubles title.

Hingis set a series of "youngest-ever" records before ligament injuries in both ankles forced her to withdraw temporarily from professional tennis in 2002 at the age of 22. After several surgeries and long recuperations, Hingis returned to the WTA tour in 2006. She then climbed to world number 6 and won three singles titles. On 1 November 2007, Hingis announced her retirement from tennis while admitting she had tested positive for cocaine during Wimbledon in 2007. She denied using the drug. On 4 January 2008, she was banned from tennis for two years after both cocaine tests (samples A and B) turned positive. She is not planning to contest the positive drug test because it could take years. "Because of my age and my health problems, I have also decided to retire from professional tennis." The drug test results were released to Hingis after her third round loss to Laura Granville at Wimbledon, with both "A" and "B" urine samples failing the tests. Hingis then underwent a private drug test on a hair sample, which came back negative and is evidence that she did not use cocaine.

She has stated that she will not return to professional tennis when this ban expires. She participated in the seventh (2009) series of the BBC's Strictly Come Dancing, partnering Matthew Cutler, where she was the first contestant to be voted out. Hingis won 40 singles titles and 36 doubles events. In 2005, Tennis magazine put her in 22nd place in its list of 40 Greatest Players of the TENNIS era.