From teen prodigy to tennis great: Martina Hingis' difficult journey to superstardom

With 5 Grand Slam singles titles to her name, Martina Hingis is a certified tennis great. Although the Swiss icon leads a pretty quiet life these days, her legendary journey to the top of the WTA rankings – and beyond – is still well-worth remembering.

With an elegant and fluid style, Martina Hingis glided effortlessly across the court. Yet her fierce competitive spirit quickly overshadowed the delicacy of her play. It was this unique blend of grace and tenacity that elevated her to the ranks of the world’s greatest tennis players.

Let’s take a moment to reflect on Martina Hingis's remarkable career, starting with her debut at just 14 years old when she competed in the Zurich Open in 1994. From that early moment, it was clear that Hingis was destined for greatness.

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In fact, she seemed destined to be a tennis legend because her parents had named her after the great tennis player Martina Navratilova.

Not even her parents' divorce got in her way to glory, although she had to move from her native Kosice (former Czechoslovakia) to Switzerland where her mother, Menalie Molitor, started training her at just 4 years old, as reported by Sports Illustrated in a 1999 exclusive article.

In a 2001 interview, Hingis claimed, "I was very happy with life in Czechoslovakia. I had all my friends there, and I didn't know what was happening. Of course I was very upset, crying. I couldn't speak the language. I couldn't understand anything," leaving her confused by her heritage, claiming she feels both Swiss and Czech but also, "nothing".

And that's how she ended up in the Zurich Open in 1994. There, people saw her potential, but maybe didn't expect to have such premature success.

Just two years later, Hingis reached number one of the WTA, becoming the youngest tennis player to do so. She was 16 years old, 6 months and a day – a record that is still unbeaten.

She spent 209 weeks as number one and between 1997 and 1999 she won 5 Grand Slams: Australia 1997, 1998, and 1999; Wimbledon, 1997 and the US Open, 1997.

At just 19 years old, Hingis was a tennis legend who was expected to break many more records. At least that's what everyone thought… Including her.

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Her temperament and behavior were sometimes overwhelming when things didn't play out in the way she wanted to (for example, when she burst into tears when she lost at the Roland Garros' final to Steffi Graff in 1999). In the meantime, the media analyzed every aspect of her life, on and off court.

Relationships, her love for horses, her parent's disputes… Everything regarding Martina Hingis was now a public matter and, on top of that, her form was also diminishing.

This pressure was followed by anxiety and injuries that became part of a cycle she apparently wasn't able to get out of.

That's why in 2001, the Swiss champion had to undergo surgery twice on the ligaments of her right ankle; an injury that forced her to retire at just 22 years old, as reported by The Guardian.

She announced her retirement to the surprise of many. She told French sports newspaper L'Equipe: "I have no intentions to come back. I have been in the game too long to know what it takes to get to the top and I'm no longer capable of it."

She told the news outlet that she had no regrets about her decision though: "I'm happy. Life goes on, I have a horse and live in a country I love (Switzerland). For now, returning to competition is unforeseeable."

However, Hingis did return to competition in 2006 and stayed in the elite tier for three years: She reached 6th position in the WTA ranking and won 3 individual titles. But then, injuries and a positive in a drugs test at Wimbledon made her announce her retirement for a second time.

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The reality is that Hingis didn't exactly retire of her own accord. She was sanctioned for the positive drug test and banned from playing for two years, as reported by The New York Post at the time. Her retirement came on November 1st, 2007, and the positive test was made public in January 2008.

But it wouldn't be the last we would see of the tennis player… In 2013, Martina Hingis returned to professional tennis with a doubles match with Daniela Hantuchova by her side in the Southern California Open. Again, Martina proved to everyone that she would always be a tennis pro.

Before officially retiring in October 2017, the Swiss tennis player won a total of 10 Grand Slams (4 female doubles and 6 mixed doubles) and the silver medal with Timea Bacsinszky in the female doubles of the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro 2016.

Martina Hingis' desire was to retire as she did in 2002: as the world number one. This time, she was number one in the doubles ranking.

After 23 years at the top of the tennis world, despite two breaks from competition, Hingis eventually retired. It's intriguing to imagine just how much more she could have accomplished if not for the injuries and challenging moments that interrupted her career.

When she announced her official retirement, Hingis claimed: "The successes I've had over the past three years have been great and it's going to be hard to beat anyway. And my priorities change, too, of course," Sky Sports reported.

Three years after her retirement, in an interview with the magazine Blick, she pointed out that she wasn't going to miss traveling: "Being in the WTA circuit meant traveling 40 weeks a year. Now I only travel 2 or 3."

The best thing about her current travels is not where she is going but who she is going with: her husband, sports doctor Harald Leeman, and her daughter Lia, who was born in March 2019.

Image: Instagram (@martinahingis80)

Image: Instagram (@martinahingis80)

To see part of what her life looks like now you just have to take a look at her Instagram account where the former tennis player is quite active. She is still in love with horses and shares everyday life moments with her family.

Image: Instagram (@martinahingis80)

We can see her skiing, horse riding, doing mountain trails, going to the beach, with her daughter Lia, and of course, playing tennis. Hingis continues to participate in exhibitions, events, and friendly matches, but now without the pressure of competition on her shoulders.

Image: Instagram (@martinahingis80)

Hingis has her actual residence an hour away from Zurich in the town of Bad Ragaz. There, she has a small plot of land where she can enjoy nature and has enough space for her horse stables.

Image: Instagram (@martinahingis80)

And as she said in her farewell speech, she helps her mother in the tennis school: "I train young talents with my mother three times a week."

We can say that besides some difficulties along the way, Martina Hingis' early official retirement — two decades after she first quit tennis — has had a happy ending.

Image: Instagram (@martinahingis80)

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