Martina Hingis can no longer walk through the gates at Wimbledon, the historic locale where she won the ‘97 title as a bright-eyed, soft-handed 16-year-old. The suspended five-time Grand Slam champ can’t waltz through the entryways at the Australian Open (which she won three times), the U.S. Open (which she won once) nor the French Open (where she fell apart in two finals).
She’s in limbo, living through a two-year suspension for having cocaine in her system at ‘07 Wimbledon and, according to her, is completely retired with no chance of returning after her sentence is served out.
She still proclaims her innocence, saying she has no idea how the banned substance entered her system, but gave up the court battle after she lost her appeal in December ‘07. Her suspension will last through October of ‘09, and by then, she’ll be 29, not an ideal age from which to launch a third comeback.
Hingis is concerned that her reputation has been tainted and, given that she’s only made a handful of low-profile appearances since last fall, she’s unsure of what the public’s reaction was to the charges. She’s worried that her legacy has been tarnished and, really, despite having the numbers to grant her an easy entry into the Hall of Fame, she may not end up being nominated, given the gravity of the charge.
But there was no way she was going to keep fighting the accusation, as she felt like she was being bled dry by lawyers and had nowhere else to turn.
“I felt like I had a no-win situation,” Hingis told Inside Tennis at the Esurance Classic in Tiburon, Calif., where she played an exhibition and gave clinics. “I wish today I still knew what happened, how it got into my system. I feel like I’m innocent, but I can’t prove any different. I could have spent millions. The expenses of the lawyer were there. Three months later, it was costing me $1,000 an hour. Plus, it was at the same time of [the doping accusations on] Marion Jones and the Tour de France, and I said, ‘Okay [I’ll let it go]. The first step [of the appeal] is three months and if you keep going stage to stage, the suspension would be over anyway by the time it finished.’ Maybe the rules will change and my case will help change the rules. I have to take it as it is and think about what I can do now.”
What she will do in the long-term is hard to tell. Not even Hingis knows. Emotionally, she clearly hasn’t recovered from her suspension. She’s the first No. 1 to have been banned for doping, let alone the first all-time great. Even as a 16-year-old, she was conscious of her place in the game and concerned what others thought of her. She’s not one of those athletes who, when in trouble, can figuratively stick her middle finger up high in the air and say, “Screw the fans, the media, my peers and everyone else who thinks badly of me.”
When told that there were some in tennis who were surprised she threw up her hands and walked away because they don’t believe that cocaine is a performance enhancing drug — and because by walking away it appeared that she was admitting guilt without actually offering an apology — she was taken aback.
She can’t believe anyone would believe she was juiced up at Wimbledon, given that she was routined by journeywoman Laura Granville in the third round, a player whom even on a B-Level day Hingis should have brushed aside.
“I know exactly that I’m going to be tested at Wimbledon,” she said. “I could have lost first round, too [to Naomi Cavaday]. Why would I do that?”
Other than Hingis, who knows why, or why if she didn’t, her lawyers couldn’t find a way to prove her innocence?
Plus, it must be remembered that her second comeback, which began in ‘06 after a nearly three-year layoff due to burnout, was essentially then over anyway. After a good ‘06 and a solid start to ‘07, where she gagged to Kim Clijsters in the Aussie Open quarters and then won Tokyo over Ana Ivanovic, she mentally and physically began to fray.
She began a romance with Czech player Radek Stepanek and was putting more energy into making that union work than into her tennis.
“You have a relationship and are trying to get that going, and then Radek was injured and I tried to spend a lot of time with him and I put myself on the side,” she said. “He had a hard time and couldn’t play and I was there with him. I didn’t spend enough time practicing because I felt that I won Tokyo and that’s not going away! I beat all the top players again, got to No. 6 and, although I never won the French Open, I was thinking, ‘What more was out there for me?’ From there, it was difficult to get back into it. I had all the mental confidence, but the hunger was more toward other things. The natural instinct as a woman is that you have a partner and think more about him. Tennis wasn’t the priority anymore. [Stepanek] became more important.”
Hingis tried to go back to work, but her results suffered. She was never a power player who could whack her way through matches. She had to hustle, to think, to fight and to keep improving against a talented field. And then she stopped caring.
“It didn’t fill me up,” she said. “The first time around when I won Grand Slams and was at my peak, I remember those great feelings. The first year of the comeback it was more to prove it to myself and everyone else that I could still play and I did it. I was already at the end before it all happened. With all the injuries, I was thinking about [retiring]. I wasn’t enjoying it, because I couldn’t play like the first time around. I just had to see it all over again and it was great. The memories were a lot deeper the second time around, even though I was more successful the first time around. You don’t have time to think. I had three years off to think and I wanted to be out there again and not really to be in the spotlight, because I wanted the challenge and I felt I had it in me.”
What she didn’t anticipate, though, was the breakup with Stepanek in August ‘07, which shook her to the core, and the notification of her positive drug test, which came about a month after she and her fiancée threw in the towel. Stepanek is now dating another player, although a much younger one, 19-year-old Nicole Vaidisova.
“The breakup time — that [month] was the hit list. It had it all,” Hingis said. “That didn’t help. It was one of the hardest times of my life. I had transitioned into thinking what [was] more important to me. Inside it was hard. He had a life to go to and I had a life, but I felt like I had given a lot. Then I got that letter [from the ITF]. That’s another chapter.”
Hingis is dating again, which helps take the sting away, but she’s still searching for a life after the WTA tour that will satisfy her. She rarely plays tennis and only practices when there is an exhibition ahead. She’s charming and smart, but has no desire to go back into TV commentary because the constant waiting bores her. She also sees a real lack of personalities in women’s tennis these days and is disappointed in the lack of variety amongst young players. Instead, she keeps herself busy by riding her six horses in Switzerland, skiing a little and occasionally making appearances.
“It kind of fills up my day,” she said of the horseback riding. “I can’t do that many things. I’m 28 and not getting younger. You start thinking about starting a family and other things as well. This is my second part of life. I don’t miss the circuit. I’m happy being home and relaxing. No more [pro] tennis. I don’t want to grind down and practice five to six hours a day and dedicate myself, to travel and not be able to have proper relationships.”
While at a fundraiser at Mill Valley’s Harbor Club, she smiled widely and frequently while doing a clinic with some disadvantaged Bay Area kids from Youth Tennis Advantage, so maybe that’s her true calling.
“Tennis never runs away and I know all its rules — technically,” she said with a laugh. “But now it’s too early to think about being a coach. I prefer being on court and helping children, like my mom does [who runs an academy in Switzerland] or have someone just come over, play with them for a week and then they go off to play tournaments.”
But she’s thoroughly undecided on what her future will hold. Once the tour’s key master, she’s stuck in purgatory for another year and has to learn to live with it.
“I just need one more year of patience,” she said. “And I think I’ll be ready to do things again.”
