Martina Hingis

Swiss tennis player

Martina Hingis is a Swiss former professional tennis player who was the first Swiss player, male or female, to win a major title and attain a world No. 1 ranking. She is considered an all-time tennis great, having won 25 major titles and spending over 200 weeks as the world’s top-ranked singles player.

About the Martina Hingis

Martina Hingisis a Swiss former professional tennis player. Hingis was the first Swiss player, male or female, to win a major title and to attain a world No. 1 ranking. She spent a total of 209 weeks as the singles world No. 1 and 90 weeks as doubles world No. 1, holding both No. 1 rankings simultaneously for 29 weeks. She won five major singles titles, 13 major women’s doubles titles (including the Grand Slam in 1998), and seven major mixed doubles titles, for a combined total of 25 major titles. In addition, she won the season-ending WTA Finals two times in singles and three in doubles, an Olympic silver medal in doubles, and a record 17 Tier I singles titles.

Hingis set a series of “youngest-ever” records during the 1990s, including youngest-ever Grand Slam champion and youngest-ever world No. 1. Before ligament injuries in both ankles forced her to withdraw temporarily from professional tennis in early 2003, at the age of 22, she had won 40 singles titles and 36 doubles titles and, according to Forbes, was the highest-paid female athlete in the world for five consecutive years, 1997 to 2001. After several surgeries and long recoveries, Hingis returned to the WTA Tour in 2006, climbing to world No. 6, winning two Tier I tournaments, and receiving the Laureus World Sports Award for Comeback of the Year. She retired in November 2007 after being hampered by a hip injury for several months. In January 2008, the International Tennis Federation suspended Hingis for two years following a positive test for a metabolite of cocaine in 2007.

In July 2013, Hingis again returned from retirement to play the doubles events of the North American hardcourt season. During her doubles-only comeback, she won four major women’s doubles tournaments, six major mixed doubles tournaments (completing the career Grand Slam in mixed doubles), 27 WTA Tour titles, and the silver medal in women’s doubles at the 2016 Rio Olympics. Hingis retired for the third and final time after the 2017 WTA Finals, while ranked as the world No. 1.

Widely considered an all-time tennis great, Hingis was ranked by Tennis magazine in 2005 as the eighth-greatest female player of the preceding 40 years. She was named one of the “30 Legends of Women’s Tennis: Past, Present and Future” by TIME in June 2011. In 2013, Hingis was elected into the International Tennis Hall of Fame, and was appointed two years later the organization’s first ever Global Ambassador.

Frequently Asked Questions

Martina Hingis spent a total of 209 weeks as the singles world No. 1.

Martina Hingis has won a record 17 Tier I singles titles.

Martina Hingis has won a combined total of 25 major titles, including 5 major singles titles, 13 major women’s doubles titles, and 7 major mixed doubles titles.

Martina Hingis set a series of ,youngest-ever, records during the 1990s, including becoming the youngest-ever Grand Slam champion and the youngest-ever world No. 1.

Martina Hingis had to withdraw temporarily from professional tennis in early 2003 at the age of 22 due to ligament injuries in both ankles.

In 2008, Martina Hingis received the Laureus World Sports Award for Comeback of the Year after her return to the WTA Tour in 2006.

Martina Hingis has retired from professional tennis three times, with her final retirement coming after the 2017 WTA Finals while ranked as the world No. 1.

27 Quotes by Martina Hingis

  1. 1.

    Now that I beat Lindsay I feel much better.

    Martina Hingis

    Swiss tennis player

  2. 2.

    I always give Lindsay so much credit for her tennis game, for her attitude, for her person, and because of how she deals with all the things. I don’t think people give her enough credit for how well she’s doing.

    Martina Hingis

    Swiss tennis player

  3. 3.

    I didn’t have the same fitness or ability as the other girls, so I had to beat them with my mind.

    Martina Hingis

    Swiss tennis player

  4. 4.

    Sometimes I wouldn’t give an interview because I didn’t have the time or something else was more important. So they come up with a story which I don’t think is always true, but they have to sell papers.

    Martina Hingis

    Swiss tennis player

  5. 5.

    He is still my father. He is still a person I know I could trust and he would never do anything against me. Once you’re at the top, there are not many people like that. People always want something from you.

    Martina Hingis

    Swiss tennis player

  6. 6.

    Well, maybe at home I don’t have the best image.

    Martina Hingis

    Swiss tennis player

  7. 7.

    Honestly, I’m more into the computer, the Internet, and checking out scores or the news.

    Martina Hingis

    Swiss tennis player

  8. 8.

    I’m glad you’re doing this story on us and not on the WNBA. We’re so much prettier than all the other women in sports.

    Martina Hingis

    Swiss tennis player

  9. 9.

    No, because I think I have a reason to believe in myself and I think I’m also pretty confident about who I am and what I’m doing and it might be because I’m still at the top too.

    Martina Hingis

    Swiss tennis player

  10. 10.

    I’m not saying I’m something special. I might play a little better tennis than other people, but it is because I was given the chance, and not many people are.

    Martina Hingis

    Swiss tennis player

  11. 11.

    The first point is always to believe in it when you go on court and then you have the chances to win.

    Martina Hingis

    Swiss tennis player

  12. 12.

    I think the whole boycott thing was a bit too much. It’s because we’re accomplished so much in women’s tennis in the last two, three years. We deserve something better.

    Martina Hingis

    Swiss tennis player

  13. 13.

    I’ve lived for 10 years in Switzerland, so I speak German.

    Martina Hingis

    Swiss tennis player

  14. 14.

    I grew up on the tennis court with lots of other kids. There were like 40 kids all afternoon and I was one of the youngest ones, so I always had to chase everybody to keep up.

    Martina Hingis

    Swiss tennis player

  15. 15.

    I was always at peace because of the way my mom treated me.

    Martina Hingis

    Swiss tennis player

  16. 16.

    The older you get, the more you learn.

    Martina Hingis

    Swiss tennis player

  17. 17.

    That’s one of the reasons I moved to Florida. Of course, the main reason is the weather and the training. But there’s more jealousy in Switzerland because it’s so little and they don’t have so many athletes.

    Martina Hingis

    Swiss tennis player

  18. 18.

    I don’t think it’s a low point being in the finals of the French Open, three points away from the victory.

    Martina Hingis

    Swiss tennis player

  19. 19.

    The top players talk more now, and we have more meetings. We’re just trying to get things better. But we still need somebody who could make a difference.

    Martina Hingis

    Swiss tennis player

  20. 20.

    Sometimes you want to make your own experiences.

    Martina Hingis

    Swiss tennis player

  21. 21.

    When I was 4 my mother got divorced and we were very close to each other. I always wanted to be with her. She took me everywhere. When she went for dinner with friends or when they had meetings at the tennis club, I was always there.

    Martina Hingis

    Swiss tennis player

  22. 22.

    We had a poster of the Davis Cup in 1986. It was in Prague, the Czech Republic against Sweden, and we went to watch, so I got the poster. You couldn’t get all the posters. You were lucky if you got one.

    Martina Hingis

    Swiss tennis player

  23. 23.

    I have good anticipation, and good reaction to the the ball because I’ve played so many matches in my life.

    Martina Hingis

    Swiss tennis player

  24. 24.

    The game overall has gotten so much better, stronger, more physical parts to the game.

    Martina Hingis

    Swiss tennis player

  25. 25.

    Right now I like baseball, hockey and tennis players. And horseback riders.

    Martina Hingis

    Swiss tennis player

  26. 26.

    Any tournament you go to, you want to win it.

    Martina Hingis

    Swiss tennis player

  27. 27.

    I still speak Czech with my parents because I was born there.

    Martina Hingis

    Swiss tennis player