Hingis Set For WTT Return
(February 3, 2010) Add another former World No. 1 Grand Slam champion to the comeback club.
Martina Hingis, who completed a two-year ban for a positive cocaine test on September 30th, announced she will compete in a full season of World TeamTennis this summer.
Could her commitment to WTT be the first step to a larger comeback to the WTA Tour?
The 29-year-old Hingis watched Kim Clijsters' compelling comeback to claim the US Open championship in September and tuned into the Australian Open to see another Belgian wild card, Justine Henin, reach the final in her first Grand Slam appearance in two years.
Hingis concedes the successful comebacks of Clijsters and Henin have prompted her to consider a comeback to the WTA Tour, but "at this point", she told the Associated Press, she has no plans for a full fledged comeback.
"There's a spark (of interested in a comeback)," Hingis said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press, but pointed out the extensive travel required to play the pro circuit is a primary reason why she is not launch return to the WTA Tour.
"If it was played in the backyard," Hingis said told the AP, "then I'd probably think about it twice."
Hingis announced her second retirement from tennis on November 1, 2007 after testing positive for trace amounts of cocaine during the 2007 Wimbledon. Hingis denied she had ingested the drug, but opted against appealing the two year ban because, she said, legal costs for an appeal would have been too extreme.
The five-time Grand Slam champion prepared for her first return to tournament tennis by playing World TeamTennis in the summer of 2005. She was named WTT Female MVP, partnered John McEnroe in mixed doubles and helped lead the New York Sportimes to the 2005 WTT title.
Hingis, who will join McEnroe, the Williams sisters and Maria Sharapova among the marquee players selected in the February 11th WTT draft, is scheduled to play 14 World TeamTennis matches this summer.
While she concedes missing the competition, Hingis said she remains well aware of the time, work and dedication reaching the top 10 requires.
"What I miss is probably the winning moments — when you hold up the trophy and you know you are the best in the world and you end up winning Grand Slams. That is probably the moment an athlete is most happy," Hingis told the AP "You miss that, but you know that getting to that point takes a lot of years, a lot of hard work, a lot of practice. It doesn't come from heaven. You never forget how much work, how much pain, you go through to get there."