Biography
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Personal
Martina Hingis was born on September 30 1980 in Kosice, Slovakia and entered her first tennis tournament as a four-year-old.
In 1988 she moved with her family to Switzerland and started to be coached by her mother Melanie Molitor.
When aged just 12 Martina became the youngest Grand Slam junior title winner at the French Open and in 1994 became the youngest ever junior Wimbledon champion at 13 years and 276 days.
She won a second wins Roland Garros junior title the same year and was a junior finalist at the US Open.
A precocious talent, Martina turned professional two weeks after her 14th birthday and ended the year ranked 87 in the world; a year later that rank was up to 16.
In May 1995, Martina reached her 1st final at the WTA tournament in Hamburg and the following year defeated world #1 Steffi Graf to reach the final in Rome. A few months later at the US Open, Martina reached her 1st semis at a Grand Slam.
In October 1996 Martina broke into the world's top 10 and won her first WTA Tour singles title at Filderstadt, beating three higher-ranked players - Aranxta Sanchez-Vicario, Anke Huber and Lindsay Davenport - along the way. Martina continued her unbeaten streak by claiming the title in Oakland and then reached the final at the WTA Tour Championships losing to world #1 Steffi Graf in 5 thrilling sets after being hampered by cramp.
The following year was undoubtedly Martina's most successful as she forged a position as the undisputed leading woman in the game. She won a warm up event in Sydney in January before claiming her first Grand Slam title at the Australian Open, beating reigning champion Mary Pierce in the final and becoming the youngest Grand Slam winner in the 20th Century aged just 16 years and three months.
By March, Martina was ranked number one in the world and in July became the youngest player in the open era to win the singles title at Wimbledon, aged 16 years, nine months and five days.
The only Grand Slam Martina failed to win in 1997 was the French Open - losing in the final to Iva Majoli - and she added the US Open tile in September by beating another player fresh on the circuit, Venus Williams, in the final.
As well as her three Grand Slam titles, Martina won Sydney, Tokyo, Paris, Miami, Hilton Head, Stanford, San Diego, Filderstadt and Phildelphia.
The following year Martina picked up where she left off by defending her Australian crown - the youngest player to successfully defend a Grand Slam title at 17 years, four months and one day.
The same year Martina became only the fourth woman to win a doubles full Grand Slam, winning the Australian Open with Mirjana Lucic and the French, Wimbledon and US Open titles with Jana Novotna, who beat her in a Wimbledon semi-final.
Martina later added the end-of-season Chase Championships to her three other titles (Indian Wells, Rome & Hamburg) in 1998 but lost the number one ranking to Lindsey Davenport
January 1999 and Martina was toasting her own success in Australia again. A third successive Australian Open singles crown was secured as well as the doubles title with new teammate Anna Kournikova.
Martina later followed up with titles in Tokyo, Hilton Head and Berlin and was heading into the French Open in excellent form until the final when it looked like she was going to take the final but it slipped through her fingers as she lost a 'lively' final to Steffi Graf.
Things weren't looking too good when Martina lost in the 1st round at Wimbledon but she rebounded by taking the titles in San Diego and Toronto but then lost the US Open final to Serena Williams.
Martina then took her last title of the year at Filderstadt and she returned to number 1.
In 2000 Martina once more made the final of the Australian Open but was beaten by Lindsay Davenport 6-1, 7-5 to end her three year reign as champion there.
She also reached the semis at Roland Garros and US Open and the quarter-finals at Wimbledon, meaning 2000 was the first year she had failed to win a Grand Slam in a season since 1996.
However she compensated by winning nine other titles (Tokyo, Miami, Hamburg, Rosmalen, Montreal, Filderstadt, Zurich, Moscow) including the season-ending Chase Championship, and once again ended the year at number one
In 2001 Martina beat both the Williams sisters on route to the final of the Australian Open where she lost in straight sets against number 12 seed Jennifer Capriati.
She along with compatriot Roger Federer did take home the Hopman Cup for Switzerland with after victory over Monica Seles and Jan-Michael Gambill of the US in the final at the Burswood Dome in Perth.
Capriati once more got the better of her in a French Open semi-final before she was embarrassed 6-4 6-2 by Virgina Ruano-Pascual - ranked 83 in the world - in the first round at Wimbledon.
Martina won titles in Sydney, Dubai and Doha and Martina ended 2001 with a achilles injury which happened in Filderstadt.
Despite returning in 2002 after three months out with an Achilles injury to win her 39th career title in Sydney and going on to reach her sixth consecutive Australian Open final - beaten again by Capriati despite holding four match points - persistent injuries took their toll. Martina did rebound the following week as she took the title at the big event in Tokyo
Martina didn't play from May until August and played 5 events and didn't reach the semis and that seemed to be it as Martina stated in February 2003 that it was unlikely that she would return to tennis.
Martina did not play competitive tennis for three years but remained a familiar face on tour working in the media and appearing at WTA functions.
However her self imposed hiatus was ended in 2005 when she played her first tour event since 2002, losing in the first round in Pattaya City.
Then, in November Martina announced she was to make a return the following year and backed up her words by winning two titles (Rome and Kolkata) and remarkably finishing the year ranked seventh in the world
With her comeback in full swing Hingis reached the quarter-finals of the Australian Open and followed up by taking her 5th title in Tokyo but suffered for a hip injury for most of the year as she failed to reach a quarter-final from February onwards.
November 2007 saw the curtain fall on a fascinating career with the shock announcement that she tested positive for cocaine at Wimbledon
In a heart-felt statement delivered to the world's media Hingis strenuously denied taking the drug but nevertheless confirmed her retirement from the sport, which had been her life since she was a child, for a second time.
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