Biographie
The passion for the white sport ran in the family, as her father was also a tennis player who reached number 19 in his country's rankings. Martina Hingis herself learned to play tennis from early childhood. She was trained by her mother. She was already playing in tournaments at the age of five. In 1987 her parents divorced. The following year, in 1988, Hingis moved with her mother to Switzerland to Trübbach, municipality of Wartau, canton of St. Gallen. There she took on Swiss nationality. In 1993, Martina Hingis, just twelve years old, won her first Grand Slam title in the junior division at the French Open. She was the youngest player in tennis history to win a Junior Grand Slam.
At Wimbledon in 1993, he made it to the semi-finals in the junior singles and doubles. In 1994, fourteen-year-old Hingis was the most successful player in Switzerland. She documented her class with a victory at the OTF tournament in Langenthal. During this time, she played her first tournament as a professional tennis player in Zurich. She made it to the round of 16 and was stopped by Mary Pierce. In the same year she was ranked 399th in the world. Hingis was able to improve further and the following year she was already among the 20 best tennis players in the world. At the age of 15, she reached the semi-finals of the US Open and was ranked 13th in the world. In 1995 she won her first WTA title in Filderstadt. In the same year, Martina Hingis triumphed against top player Monica Seles in Oakland, California.
With this victory, she was crowned the youngest prize money millionaire in tennis history. In the 1995 New York tournament at Madison Square Garden she made it to the semifinals. There she met the strong German Steffi Graf, who won the match. The following year, Martina Hingis started the Sydney International tournament in Australia. In the final game she faced the American Jennifer Capriati, who she was able to defeat and thus collect another tournament success. Her greatest success in 1997 was winning the Australian Open against Mary Pierce in the final. She became the youngest player in tennis history to ever win a Grand Slam tournament.
The Swiss continued to improve her performance. The success was finally recorded in the world rankings, in which she was listed as number one in 1997. After interruptions, she took the place of world number one again on February 8, 1999, after replacing her competitor, the American player Lindsay Davenport. Then the following year he was once again at the top of the world rankings, which lasted a total of 73 weeks. It was only in the second half of 2002 that she was replaced by the American player Jennifer Capriati. Her sporting track record includes winning the Australian Open three times in 1997, 1998 and 1999. In 1997 she won the US Open and the traditional Wimbledon tournament, which is considered the unofficial world championship.
She won the Masters in 1998 and 2000. She has a total of 43 individual victories on the WTA tour. In the meantime, Martina Hingis had left Switzerland and moved to the USA. She lives and trains there in Saddlebrook, Florida. In 2002, Martina Hingis was plagued by injuries. The year before, she tore a triple ligament at the tournament in Filderstadt, which she was still struggling with the following year. The former world number one had to cancel her participation in the US Open tournament after an ankle operation. In February 2003, at the age of 22, Martina Hingis announced her retirement.
In January 2006, Hingis made her comeback at the Brisbane tournament. After which she reached number 6 in the world rankings. At the Australian Open, Hingis reached the quarterfinals in singles and in Tokyo, Hingis reached the final of a WTA tournament. On September 24, Hingis won the Hansol Korea Open Tennis Championships in Seoul, Korea. In January 2007, Hingis again reached the quarterfinals of the Australian Open. On November 1, 2007, Hingis announced her retirement from professional tennis at a media conference in Glattbrugg. In her career she remained at the top of the world number one list for 209 weeks (for the first time on March 31, 1997). She won 43 tournaments in singles and 37 in doubles. The career prize money won totaled around $20 million. Her singles career match record included 548 wins and 133 losses.
