Copyright dailystar
Tennis legend Martina Hingis has maintained her youthful appearance nearly two decades after her cocaine scandal. The Swiss star, who clinched 25 Grand Slam titles across singles, doubles and mixed doubles, crafted an impressive legacy despite her career being prematurely ended by injuries in 2003 due to ankle problems. Hingis made a comeback a few years later, but it was abruptly halted when she received a two-year ban from the sport for testing positive for a cocaine metabolite in a urine test in 2007. Now, 18 years to the day from her suspension, Hingis appears barely aged and looks as though she could still give anyone a run for their money on the court. Born in Czechoslovakia, Hingis moved to Switzerland at the tender age of six following her parents' divorce. Following her father's path, Hingis showed extraordinary talent from a young age, securing a French Open junior Grand Slam title at just 12. In 1996, she etched her name in history by becoming the youngest ever Grand Slam champion, winning the women's doubles title at Wimbledon aged just 15 years and nine months. 1997 marked the zenith of her career, as she climbed to the world No. 1 spot and bagged further Grand Slam victories, including the Australian Open and Wimbledon singles titles. She rounded off the year by triumphing over Venus Williams in the US Open final, thus securing three of the four slams that year. Throughout her remarkable career, Hingis clinched three Australian Open Grand Slams (1997, 1998, 1999) and single titles at Wimbledon (1997) and the US Open (1997). She also dominated in doubles, reigning supreme in both women's and mixed categories. However, her career suffered a setback in the early 2000s due to ankle surgeries, leading to her initial retirement from tennis at the tender age of 22 because of excruciating pain. Despite staging a comeback in 2005, she never managed to recapture the heights of her early career on the baseline. In 2007, she found herself mired in controversy after testing positive for benzoylecgonine, a cocaine metabolite, during a urine test at Wimbledon. Despite her appeals and insistence on her innocence, she was handed a two-year ban and again hung up her racket. The latter years of her doubles-only career were filled with victories, including four major women's doubles tournaments, six major mixed doubles tournaments, 27 WTA Tour titles, and a silver medal in women's doubles at the 2016 Rio Olympics. She hung up her racket for good in 2017, but even at 45, she looks fit enough to compete and has been seen participating in invitational events in recent years. Off the court, Hingis has walked down the aisle twice. She was engaged to fellow tennis player Radek Stepanek in 2006, but they called off their engagement a year later. Later, she got engaged to Swiss lawyer Andreas Bieri in 2009, but once again, the couple ended their relationship in 2010. Hingis then married French equestrian show jumper Thibault Hutin in December 2010, but their marriage was short-lived. The tennis star confirmed to a Swiss newspaper in 2013 that they had been separated since the start of that year. Their relationship breakdown played out in the public eye. The Daily Mail reported that Hingis was questioned by Swiss police after Hutin alleged he had been attacked by Hingis and her mother. He also claimed Hingis' mother's boyfriend assaulted him with a DVD player. Both her mother Melanie Molitor and her mother's boyfriend Mario Widmer were interviewed by police. Five years later, she married sports physician Harald Leemann in Switzerland in a private ceremony. On her 38th birthday, she announced that the couple were expecting, with their daughter, Lia, born on February 26, 2019. They later divorced in August 2022. Since calling it quits once and for all, Hingis has turned her hand to golf and helps her mum run a tennis school. She's also the face of several tennis brands and still takes part in invitational matches. "I do a lot of things bit by bit, but what I will never give up on is horses and skiing. And although I have many worries ahead of me, connected with having a child, I will make no concessions," she confessed to Swiss Health Magazine. "I simply cannot do it. Of course, tennis will remain in my life; it is the closest and simplest activity for me. It would be too hard and unnecessary to start some other career... but concerning different hobbies, why not? Well, in the meantime, I will help my mother run her tennis school. One of our mentees has already become the best player in Switzerland at the age of 13. "It is a pleasure for me to watch them training and making progress. And when I advise them and it reaps rewards, they rejoice. And I'm happy." The former world No. 1 keeps a keen eye on the current tennis scene and has even offered advice to Emma Raducanu following her coaching changes after her 2021 US Open win. "If you have the right surroundings, I think that's also really important," she advised. "I never met her so I don't know exactly what goes through the head. It's incredible she was able to win the US Open and, all of the changes after that, I don't think it was a great choice to do. "When you win with someone, you usually continue, but I can't judge what happened. It would be nice for her to find the way and to find her success again. She's got the shots, she's the whole package, but you still need the results. It's not like one day you win the US Open and then that's the rest of the life."
