Hingis at a ceremony in Tokyo to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Pan Pacific Open in September 2013. (Reuters/Toru Hanai)
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Eleven-year-old Hingis and her mother and coach Melanie Molitor, pictured in Trübbach, canton St. Gallen, in 1991. (Keystone/Arno Balzarini)
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At 11, Hingis was the Swiss champion in the 13-14 age category and was considered a great hope of Swiss women's tennis. (Keystone/Arno Balzarini)
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Hingis defeats Venus Williams in the final of the 1997 US Open. (AP Foto/Elise Amendola)
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Hingis, Martina Hingis, at the premiere of the latest Bond film in 1997. She is with that year's Mister Switzerland. (Keystone/Niklaus Stauss)
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Hingis beats Amélie Mauresmo for her her third Australian Open in 1999. (AP Foto/Steve Holland)
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Can't win them all: Hingis on the way to a defeat by Jennifer Capriati in the final of the 2001 Australian Open. (AP Foto/Mogens Johansen)
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Hingis arrives for the 2005 "Golden Camera" awards in Berlin. (DPA/Hubert Boesl)
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Stretching during the Pan Pacific Open final in 2007. (Reuters/Kim Kyung-Hoon)
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Hingis faces the press in 2007 after being accused of testing positive for cocaine at Wimbledon. She denied the charges but announced her retirement from professional tennis. (Keystone/Walter Bieri)
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With Anna Kournikova during a Ladies Invitation match at Wimbledon in 2010. (Keystone)
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During a doubles match at Wimbledon in 2014. (AP Foto/Ben Curtis)
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Hingis (left) and Sania Mirza celebrate after winning the 2016 Australian Open. (Reuters/Jason Reed)
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Final silverware (for the moment): Hingis and Yung-Jan Chan kiss the US Open trophy in 2017. (Reuters/Andrew Kelly)
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Switzerland’s most successful tennis player has retired. No, not Roger Federer. Martina Hingis, owner of 25 grand slam trophies, has hung up her racket (for the third time). swissinfo.ch looks back at a colourful career – on and off court.
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Born in London, Thomas was a journalist at The Independent before moving to Bern in 2005. He speaks all three official Swiss languages and enjoys travelling the country and practising them, above all in pubs, restaurants and gelaterias.
Ester Unterfinger (picture editor), Thomas Stephens (text)
Hingis has squeezed a lot into 37 years. Born in what is now Slovakia (and named after Martina Navratilova), she came to Switzerland aged seven when her mother married a Swiss man. She had already been playing tennis for five years.
She turned pro at 13, won her first grand slam match at 14, beat the then world No 1 Steffi Graf at 15 and won her first grand slam title – and became No 1 herself – at 16. Hingis still holds the records for the youngest winner of a grand slam singles title and youngest world No 1.
Yet despite her success – she won five grand slam titles in singles, 13 in doubles and seven in mixed doubles – the “Swiss Miss” has never been particularly popular within Switzerland. Admittedly it’s tough to compete with Federer, but being booed for petulanceExternal link in a grand slam final and being banned for cocaine (which she denies taking) are rarely good career moves.
However, in a remarkable doubles-focused comeback in 2013, a permanently smiling Hingis seemed to really enjoy playing tennis. This translated into extraordinary success, winning ten grand slam titles in doubles or mixed doubles.
Former tennis champion Hingis ends colourful career
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Aged 16, Hingis rose to the top of the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) rankings in 1997 having won Wimbledon, the US Open and the Australian Open that year. She was the WTA’s No. 1-ranked player for 209 weeks. But her prolific success as a singles player was cut short by injury in 2003, following two…
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If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.
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Hingis retires amid cocaine allegations
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The Swiss tennis star, a five-times grand slam champion and former Wimbledon winner, denied using cocaine. “I have tested positive but I have never taken drugs and I feel one hundred per cent innocent,” she said at a news conference in Zurich. Hingis lost in the third round at Wimbledon this year to Laura Granville,…
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Patty Schnyder, Switzerland’s most successful ever woman tennis player after Martina Hingis, and who started her professional career in 1994, has announced her retirement.
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here. Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.