Martina Hingis, a 32-year-old recent inductee into the WTA Hall of Fame, has been in the news throughout her career for both positive reasons on the tennis court, and negative reasons away from the sport.
Now, however, is one of those good times. Hingis has made a return to the WTA, taking part in a doubles draw in California along with Daniela Hantuchova, dismantling Darija Jurak and Julia Goerges 6-1, 6-1.
A happy Hingis joked afterward about her six-year absence from the WTA, saying "It had to take her [Hantuchova] a lot of courage and inspiration to dig me out of the grave."
Grave is too strong a word, seeing as how Hingis has spent this year helping the Washington Kastles of World Team Tennis run wild on their competitors. Earlier this year the Kastles did a Miami Heat impression, reeling off 34 consecutive victories, a World Team Tennis record.
Although she played doubles recently, Hingis is a former world No. 1 in singles competition, and owns a career Grand Slam. She was the Australian Open champion three seasons in a row from 1997 to 1999. In 1997, she also captured a Wimbledon championship and reached the finals of the French Open in what was one of the more dominant stretches of play the sport had ever seen.
Ankle injuries derailed her career in 2002, and she retired again in 2007 after a comeback due to a battle with cocaine. She has also been accused recently of infidelity by her estranged husband, French equestrian Thibalt Hutin.
"Martina has a very personal conception of morality," Hutin said. "She has always been like that; I think she has always been unfaithful to her boyfriends."
Hutin said he caught Hingis cheating on him with a Spanish sports executive named David Tosas Ros. "They shared the hotel room there and they paraded themselves in public in the Bois de Boulogne," Hutin said. "There are even pictures of them. You can imagine how painful it was for me."
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