Martina Hingis to launch Tonic Tennis fashions.

While casually browsing in a sports store in Chelsea, Martina was struck by the softness and unique look of Tonic active wear. After wearing them for the first time at an exhibition match at Wimbledon in 2010, Martina approached the company with the idea of launching a tennis collection. The outcome of this collaboration is a technical line which brings fashion back into tennis wear, respecting the customs rooted in sport history. Tonic Tennis by Martina Hingis emerges from the extremely high standards of the two parties, each recognized for quality and class. Canadian and Swiss cultures synthesize beautifully for Tonic Tennis to create progressive designs with a thoughtful approach to environmental and economic sustainability.

 

Hingis & Federer at the 2012 Olympics? Probably not gonna happen.

Martina Hingis is reticent about trying to play mixed doubles with fellow Swiss Roger Federer at the 2012 Olympics. Hingis said that she has yet to be directly approached by Federer and will not seriously consider it until he does so. Hingis said that one of Federer’s representatives approached her earlier this summer. In order to play in the Olympics, Hingis would have to have a singles or doubles ranking by June 11, 2012, and in order for her to directly qualify, it would have to be a fairly high one (Top 56 in singles or Top 10 in doubles). The ITF will only accept mixed doubles teams from players who are already on site in London having already qualified in singles or doubles.

“There are talks,” Hingis said in San Diego, where she was playing a pro-am. “There are too many ifs at this point. I always said I wasn’t coming back and I did, and after TeamTennis I felt good and with Serena winning Stanford [Hingis split matches with Williams in World TeamTennis]; it makes you think, ‘I played good against her and she beat Sharapova 3 and 1.’ So I’m like, ‘Wow I think I played a pretty good match’…But I don’t think I would last a whole match now. TeamTennis is only to five games.” Five-time Grand Slam singles champion Hingis also said that there would be a lot of pressure on her if she played with 16-time Grand Slam champion Federer. “To play with Roger you’d have to being playing great, right?’ she asked. Hingis said she considered playing doubles with Lindsay Davenport last year on the tour but the partnership never came to fruition. The pairing won the 2011 Roland Garros and Wimbledon senior doubles. “That’s probably more on my mind,” she said. “I felt great playing with Lindsay and people say we should go out on tour, but she’s pregnant. After the first set at Wimbledon she said, ‘I’m 12 weeks pregnant.’ I said, ‘OK, I’m the one running. I’ll back you up’…But I was never really just a doubles player; my pride was higher than that. But maybe now it’s a different approach. It would take a lot to bring me back. I enjoy the playing but the travel and the stress—my life is very comfortable now and I enjoy it.”

 

Martina Hingis is taking Roger Federer’s offer to play mixed doubles at the 2012 Olympics very, very seriously.

The International Tennis Federation writes on its website:

‘A player is eligible to compete in the Olympic Tennis Event provided they are in good standing with their National Association and the ITF, and have made themselves available for selection to represent their country in Davis Cup or Fed Cup for two of the following years – 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 – provided one of those years is 2011 or 2012.’

A Martina Hingis-Roger Federer pairing would be the story in tennis going into the Olympics. Not only would it be a fascinating trans-era partnership, it would also almost certainly be an incredibly successful one. Hingis and Federer are widely considered to be two of the greatest tactical minds of the Open Era, both with incredible creativity and touch. Hingis and Federer have each won over a dozen grand slam titles, with Hingis having won five in singles, nine in women’s doubles, and one in mixed, and all 16 of Federer’s coming in singles. The success of a Hingis-Federer pairing isn’t entirely conjecture, either. In January of 2001, before Federer had won a single title at the ATP level, Hingis and Federer paired to win the Hopman Cup for Switzerland. Their mixed doubles play was especially impressive, losing only 10 games in six sets of live rubber action before conceding a dead rubber in the final to the American team of Monica Seles and Jan-Michael Gambill.

Coming from a country that had never produced any great champions before they came along, Hingis and Federer have often been compared to one another. With both being Swiss finesse players, the connections are easy, and more importantly, fair. But while questions about other players often irritate tennis players, both Hingis and Federer have always seem greatly pleased be asked about the other. Aside from the obvious on-court reasons for them to play together, it’s clear that Hingis and Federer also share a great deal of respect and admiration for one another (if not a closeness that allowed for Roger to ask Martina about London directly).

“At the time, mixing with her, playing in doubles with her, was a privilege for me,” Federer said of Hingis in 2008. “Roger is the most talented and the most complete player on the tour,” Hingis said of Federer in 2004.

The partnership is far from a done deal, clearly. But from her uncharacteristic nervousness and evasiveness when the topic was broached, it’s clear that Hingis is taking Federer’s offer very, very seriously.

…posted from info from ‘The Daily Forehand’

 

Martina Hingis marries French show jumper Thibault Hutin

Martina Hingis has married French show jumper Thibault Hutin in a private ceremony in Paris. The wedding was a family affair, but a major white wedding is planned for next summer.

 The ceremony was a small and discrete family affair without the usual trappings we associate with celebrity weddings.  Martina Hingis is no stranger to the sporting press and the media in general. She was the youngest ever tennis player to win a grand slam, a world number one, and she retired from the sport in 2002 at the ripe age of 22. More recently, she made a successful appearance at Wimbledon in 2010 playing in the Invitational Ladies Doubles event together with Anna Kournikova. The appearance of the two players on the seniors’ players list attracted some snide comments about advanced age as they are 10 years younger than the oldest player in the main event.

Martina Hingis is involved in her second sporting career as a show jumper. She took part in quite a few show jumping events around Europe during 2010. During one of these events she met French show jumper Thibault Hutin. Her record in the sport, though, is at best indifferent.

Thibault Hutin is at 24 a future hope for French equestrians with commendable results during the last year. Descended from an affluent family, his name is refreshingly absent from the tabloid pages. This might change now with his marriage to the Swiss Miss who is a regular feature for the yellow press, usually because of her on-off engagements and relationships. Martina Hingis had been engaged twice before, once to Czech player Radek Stepanek until 2007 and as recently as spring 2010 to Swiss lawyer Andreas Bieri. She wisely (show?) jumped the engagement this time in favour of a discrete marriage. Earlier this year she sold her house near Zürich and moved to Paris.

A terrible scheduling error keeps exhibition doubles match a secret.

Age and brawn won out over youth and beauty in an exhibition set of doubles tennis that followed Rafael Nadal’s quarterfinal victory over Fernando Verdasco on Thursday night. The one-set, no-ad contest was supposed to precede Nadal, but a five-set day match tightened up the schedule and the quartet of Grand Slam champions was pushed back to be the nightcap. At the end of 40 minutes of sometimes tennis, sometimes theatre, Pat Cash and Mats Wilander prevailed 7-5 over Martina Hingis and Anna Kournikova.

Hingis and Kournikova were back together eight years after winning their second Australian Open doubles title together. They had won in 1999 before taking the crown again in 2002. Hingis also won the singles title in Flushing in 1997 plus four other Grand Slam singles titles and was once the No. 1 ranked woman in the world.

Most of the 23,000 plus in attendance were long gone by the time the elder statesmen hit the court, but those who stayed were allowed access to the best seats in the house and made plenty of noise as the former stars entertained.

Doubles duo will not return to the WTA tour.

Martina Hingis and Anna Kournikova both ruled out returning to the WTA Tour after reuniting to win an exhibition match at Wimbledon.

Kournikova suggested Hingis would have no problem fitting in, but the Swiss five-time singles grand slam winner dismissed the prospect of making a  comeback. Both will play World Team Tennis tournaments, alongside modern-day stars and veterans of the game, but the prospect of serious competition on tour appeals to neither player.

“You could for sure,” Kournikova told Hingis, with whom she won two Australian Open doubles titles. But Hingis said: “I haven’t played that much in the last three years. It’s only three years. But you have to commit. The commitment is totally different.”

She added: “You can’t pop up and say, ‘I’m going to come back and win grand slams’, even if you have a great partner.

“It’s great fun to be out there again with Anna. We had some great times. We’re sharing some good times again.

“I did it. I had my comeback. I was very happy with it. I lived through all the emotions. I missed it when I was away for three years. That’s why I did the comeback.

“Now it’s different. I’m going to be 30 years old (in September).

“I think I’ve played enough tennis in my life. Tennis gave me everything I have. I’m grateful every moment.”

Kournikova, who turned 29 earlier this month, has not played seriously since 2003, and she looked the least capable of making a comeback as she teamed up with Hingis for a 6-2 6-4 victory over Britain’s Sam Smith and Anne Hobbs.

The Russian-American said: “For me it would be impossible really physically to be on the tour. It even bothers me a little bit playing today. It wasn’t a strenuous match. It was quite fun and giggly. I’m sure I’m going to feel it and I’ll be sore.”

The ‘Dream Team’?……to play at Wimbledon.

The renowned “Dream Team” of women’s tennis is back. Tennis stars Anna Kournikova and Martina Hingis have today confirmed that they will compete together in the Ladies’ Invitation Doubles at Wimbledon this June. The pair formed one of the most formidable doubles tandems in women’s tennis in the 1990’s, winning two Grand Slam doubles titles, reaching No. 1 in the WTA Tour Doubles rankings and earning the 1999 WTA Doubles Team of the Year honors.

“I’m so excited to be returning to the UK to play doubles with Martina again,” said Kournikova. “This tournament has always held a special place in my heart, and it will be a great honor to play on the courts of Wimbledon again. I’m looking forward to having a lot of fun.”

“Anna and I have had a lot of success together and I look forward to being reunited with her at Wimbledon,” said Hingis. “Having won singles in 1997 and doubles in 1996 and 1998, I am excited about returning to the place where I have had some of the best memories of my career.”

Kournikova is a two-time Grand Slam women’s doubles champion, No. 1 ranked world junior champion, No. 1 ranked WTA tour doubles and No. 8 WTA tour singles player. At age 14, Anna became the youngest player to ever win a Fed Cup match. In 1997, she reached the semifinals of Wimbledon and became the second woman in the Open Era, next to Chris Evert, to reach the Wimbledon semifinals in her career debut. She has also defeated many of the world’s top players who have competed on the women’s tour including Lindsay Davenport, Steffi Graf, Monica Seles, Jennifer Capriati and Arantxa Sanchez among others.

Hingis is a five-time Grand Slam singles champion and nine-time Grand Slam women’s doubles champion. In 1997, Hingis won Wimbledon, the French Open and the first of three consecutive Australian Open crowns on her way to becoming the youngest top-ranked player in history. Her Australian Open victory made her the youngest Grand Slam singles winner in the 20th century at the age of 16 years and 3 months. The following year, Hingis became only the fourth woman in tennis history to win all four Grand Slam doubles titles in the same year. She owns a 548-133 all-time singles record and her 209 weeks as the world’s number 1 female player ranks fourth all-time.

Martina Hingis joins the Masters tour?

Former Wimbledon champions Martina Hingis and Richard Krajicek will be the star attractions at this summer’s Nottingham Masters tournament.

The event takes place at Nottingham Tennis Centre between 10 and 13 June.

Krajicek, winner of last year’s men’s title, won 20 career titles including the Wimbledon men’s title in 1996.

Hingis became the youngest player to win a Grand Slam, winning the women’s doubles title at Wimbledon at the age of 15 in 1995. And now she will be the youngest to be termed a ‘master’.

The Swiss originally retired from tennis in 2003 but launched a comeback before retiring for a second time in in 2008.

Krajicek retired from professional tennis in 2003 and set up the Richard Krajicek Foundation, which builds sports facilities for children in inner cities in the Netherlands.

Former British number one Jeremy Bates also joins the line-up for the first time.

No comeback for Hingis……..yet!

 There’s a spark,” Hingis said. But she also said she would rule out the possibility of a return to the tour “at this point,” primarily because of all the travel.

“If it was played in the backyard,” Hingis said from her home in Switzerland, “then I’d probably think about it twice.”

The five-time Grand Slam singles champion and youngest woman to be ranked No. 1 retired for the second time in 2007, when she was given a two-year suspension for testing positive for cocaine.

That ban ended Sept. 30, and the 29-year-old Hingis is eager to get the chance to play more tennis this year: She has committed to a full season of World Team Tennis, the coed league founded by Billie Jean King and heading into its 35th season.

Hingis will be picked by a team in the marquee player draft Feb. 11. Other top names in the draft include the Williams sisters, John McEnroe and Maria Sharapova, although they’re going to be playing only one to five matches, while Hingis is slated for all 14 in the regular season.

In 2005, Hingis used World Team Tennis to help prepare for her first comeback. Clijsters also played in the WTT last year as a way to warm up before getting back on tour after more than two years away while getting married and having a baby.

For Clijsters, that return was as successful as could be: She won the championship at the 2009 U.S. Open, the very first Grand Slam tournament — and only third event overall — of her return. That helped prompt another Belgian, Henin, to come back, too, and she managed to reach last weekend’s Australian Open final at her first Grand Slam tournament in two years.

“It’s great to see them dig deep and come back that well. I don’t know if I could handle it,” Hingis said.

She watched more of this Australian Open than she has in years.

“Of course it makes you think. Tennis was all my life, and the most natural thing is that it makes you think. It would be sad if it didn’t make me think, don’t you think?” Hingis said.

“Tennis is still my life. Well, part of it,” she continued. “But my life is very comfortable, on the other hand. Tennis gave me a lot of things and sometimes you have to put things behind. It’s a lot of sacrifice, as well. I wouldn’t want to risk it anymore.”

She originally quit tennis in 2002 because of foot and leg injuries. When she rejoined the circuit full-time in 2006, she reached two Grand Slam quarterfinals, won two smaller tournaments and made it to No. 6 in the rankings.

“It has been a while since I have seen her play, but Martina did ask me a few years ago if I thought she still had what it took to win on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour today. I think she still knows what it takes to win and is committed to the task at hand,” said King, who won 12 Grand Slam singles titles. “With her talent and a renewed commitment, she could do very well. She may not be as powerful as some players, but she knows how to make the most of any point.”

At the height of her powers, Hingis was brilliant at controlling exchanges and working every angle. Nicknamed “The Swiss Miss,” she became the youngest major champion of the 20th century when she won the 1997 Australian Open at 16, and later that year she moved up to No. 1 in the rankings. She went on to win Wimbledon and the U.S. Open that season, too, coming within a loss in the French Open final of a calendar-year Grand Slam.

“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 said.

“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,” she added. “You never forget how much work, how much pain, you go through to get there.”

Some past WTA Champions in retrospect.