Biography

The biography will be updated in due course.

In this page I will try to include as much information that I can find about Martina's past. There is a lot, so please forgive me if I have left anything out! I will try to update this page as often as I can.

Martina Hingis was born on the 30th September 1980 in Kosice, Slovakia. She was named after another great champion Martina Navratilova, by her tennis-mad parents Melanie Molitor and Karol Hingis. At the tender age of 3, Martina picked up a tennis racquet for the first time. It was one of her father's wooden racquets with the handle cut off! Her father was ranked number 19 in Czechoslovakia and her mother Melanie was already a tennis champion at the time and began training Martina. Martina began playing in tournaments at the age of 5.

Then came a turning point in Martina's life when she was just 7 years old. Her parents divorced and Martina moved to Switzerland where her mother remarried Andreas Zogg, a Swiss computer scientist (now divorced from him as well!). This move affected Martina greatly. She was forced to leave her friends, family and tennis programme for a foreign country and language. "It was the only time in my life that I can remember going through pain and sacrifice," recalled Hingis. Martina was unfamiliar with the German language and disliked going to school, but she did however achieve high grades. Martina spent most of her time on the tennis courts with her mother.

When Martina was just 6 years old, she became the Czechoslovakian Under 9 Champion and then the Swiss Outdoor Under 12 Champion at the age of 8. When she was 10, she was both the Swiss Indoor and Outdoor Under 14 Champions. At 12, she took part in the 1993 Junior French Open and won, becoming the youngest Junior Grand Slam Champion. She also reached the quarter finals in the girls' doubles at Roland Garros and was a semi finalist in the junior singles and doubles at Wimbledon. (She also beat Anna Kournikova 6-0 6-0 at the Junior US Open!)

Martina turned pro on 14th October 1994, at just 14 years of age. She entered her first pro tournament a few days later, the ITF satellite at Langenthal and won it! Martina debuted on the WTA world rankings at 399 in March '94. She entered the top 100 on 31st October '94 and had moved up 315 places in just 7 months. 15 months after turning pro, Martina broke into the top 20 on June 12th '95.

The Corel WTA Tour voted Martina as the Most Impressive Newcomer of 1995. She reached the quarter finals at the Ford Australian Open, losing to Amanda Coetzer 5-7 6-4 1-6. Martina won her second ITF Women's circuit singles title at Prostejov, beating Barbara Paulus 6-1 6-4 in the final. Two months later, Martina enjoyed one of her best victories at the time, by beating the world number 1, Steffi Graf in the quarter finals of the Italian Open in Rome. She made it to the final only to be beaten by Conchita Martinez. At the French Open, Martina lost to Karina Habsudova in the third round.

Martina reached he fourth round of Wimbledon 1996, losing to Steffi Graf 1-6 4-6. Martina did however win the Ladies' Doubles with Helena Sukova in a tight match where Martina was down 5-7 2-5 and serving to stay in the match, but they turned the match around and won the second set 7-5 and ran away with the second set 6-1. Martina becoming the youngest person to win a Wimbledon Title since Lottie Dod in the 1800's.

Martina got as far as the semi finals in Flushing Meadows, losing to Steffi Graf again, 5-7 3-6. A match which many describe as the most memorable matches in 1996. After reaching the semi finals of the US Open in '96, Martina had risen to number 13 in the world.

When the new rankings were released on 7th October, Martina had broken into the top 10. Martina then went on to win her first WTA title at the Porsche Grand Prix in Filderstadt, Germany on the 13th October beating Anke Huber in the final. Only one month later, Martina won her second WTA title at the Bank of the West classics in Oakland, California, annihilated Monica Seles 6-2 6-0 in the final on 10th November. She became the youngest player to earn more than one million dollars in a career.

On 24th November ‘96, Martina reached the final of the WTA Chase Championships at Madison Square Garden, where she faced Steffi Graf. She took Graf to five sets, in the only tournament women have to play a best of five sets match! She eventually lost 3-6 6-4 0-6 6-4 0-6 and was treated for cramps in the fourth set. She broke into tears afterwards "because I was so disappointed to lose. I worked very hard and really thought I had a chance, but Steffi showed why she is No.1."

In January '97, Martina playing in her first tournament of the year, won the Sydney International, by beating players such as Mary-Joe Fernandez and Jennifer Capriati in the final. Martina has a Rebound-Ace court at home, so she obviously has an advantage on this surface!

In the Ford Australian Open '97, Martina didn't drop a single set throughout the whole tournament, beating players such as Lisa Raymond, Irina Spirlea, Mary-Joe Fernandez before reaching her first ever Grand Slam final as a pro. She faced Mary Pierce in the final, whom she beat easily 6-2 6-2. She also won the doubles with Natasha Zvereva beating Lisa Raymond and Lindsay Davenport 6-2 6-2 as well, becoming the first person to win both the singles and doubles since her namesake, Martina Navratilova.

Martina's excellent form continued as she played in the Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo on 2nd February where she beat Amanda Coetzer and Anke Huber. She was set to meet Steffi Graf in the final, a match that had been long awaited, but Steffi defaulted at the last minute because of an aggravated tendon in her left knee. This was Martina's third consecutive title of the year!

At the Open de Gaz, Paris on the 16th February, Martina beat Silvia Farina, Nathalie Tauziat and Iva Majoli. She faced Anke Huber again in the final, who pushed Martina to 3 sets, but Martina came out on top in the end, winning her fourth consecutive tournament of the year.

At The Lipton Championships at Key Biscane, Florida in March, Martina cruised through the tournament, beating Monica Seles 6-2 6-1 in the final to claim her fifth straight tournament win of the year and extend her unbeaten run in 1997 to 29 matches!

This tournament win placed Martina at the top of the WTA World rankings on 31st March '97, making her World No.1. She is only the 7th player to ever achieve such a position and also the youngest ever World No.1 at 16 years 3 months and 1 day, beating Monica Seles.

Then at the Family Circle Magazine Cup at Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, also in March. Martina confirmed her position as World No. 1 by getting to the finals and again beating Monica Seles in the finals, but this was a much closer match, with Martina winning it 3-6 6-3 7-6 (7-5). Martina now has a winning streak of 31 matches.

On April 23rd, Martina had Arthroscopic surgery on her left knee, having suffered an injury following a fall from a friend's horse. She had to miss Hamburg, Rome and Berlin.

On 7th June, Martina played at Roland Garros as the No.1 seed for the first time and reached the women's final having beaten Monica Seles (again!) in the semi's. Martina's opponent for the final was Iva Majoli, the number 9 seed. In an astonishing match, Martina lost 4-6 2-6, bringing tears to my eyes and to many other Martina fans I am sure. This defeat was her first defeat of the year, ending her 40 match winning streak, the second best start to the season in history, and only 5 matches short of Steffi Graf's record of 45 in 1987. This also ended Martina's run of 6 consecutive tournament victories, 2 short of Steffi's 8 titles!

Martina was seeded first at Wimbledon and justified her seeding by winning the Ladies' Singles event on Saturday 5th July, beating Jana Novotna 2-6 6-3 6-3 in the final to become the youngest Wimbledon Singles Champion this century! Martina did not drop a single set in reaching the final, and dropped the only set to Jana in the final!

Martina successfully defended her title at the Bank of the West Classic, Stanford, California on 27th July by beating Conchita Martinez 6-0 6-2 in the final.

Martina claimed her 9th WTA Tour title of '97 on 3rd August by defeating Monica Seles 7-6 (7-4) 6-4 in the Toshiba Tennis Classic finals for the fourth time this year!

On 9th August, Martina suffered her second loss of the season to Lindsay Davenport, who won through in three tough sets in the semi final of the Acura Classic 2-6 6-4 4-6, having led 5-0 in the final set. It marked the first time in ‘97 when Martina failed to reach the final of a tournament.

Martina captured her third Grand Slam of the year, and her career by winning the US Open. Martina didn’t drop a set en route to the title beating Venus Williams comfortably 6-0 6-4 in the final.

Martina’s third loss of ‘97 came in Filderstadt at the Sparkassen Grand Prix to Amanda Coetzer. Again it was a three set loss in the semi final, 4-6 6-4 6-7 (3-7). But Martina made up for her singles loss with a doubles win with Jana Novotna over Yakuk Basuki and Helena Sukova 6-2 6-2 helping Jana to take both the singles and doubles trophies at Filderstadt.

On 12th October, Martina completed the singles & doubles sweep for the 6th time in her career. Martina retained her singles title by beating Lisa Raymond 6-4 6-2 in the final in only 66 minutes. Martina won her second Porsche, this time a red 911, and she’s only just old enough to start driving!! Martina won the doubles event by pairing up with Arantxa Sanchez Viacrio to defeat Lindsay Davenport and Jana Novotna 7-6 (7-4) 3-6 7-6 (7-3).

Martina suffered her fourth singles defeat of ‘97 on home soil at the European Indoors, which took place in Zurich. Lisa Raymond, the woman who Martina beat the previous week, defeated Martina 4-6 6-2 7-5 on 17th Oct. However, two days later Martina was again consolidated by a doubles victory with Arantxa Sanchez Vicario over Larisa Neiland and Helena Sukova 4-6 6-4 6-1.

On 16th Nov, at the Advanta Championships, Martina avenged one of her losses, by defeating Lindsay Davenport in the final for the title. It was a tough match, with two tie-breaks before Martina could dig out a 7-5 6-7 (7-9) 7-6 (7-4) win.

Martina picked up the award for the Corel WTA Tour Player of the Year on 19th Nov, during the Chase Championships. This was the third year running, for Martina to pick up an award at the season ending championships. However Martina could not end the WTA season with a win. Martina lost to Mary Pierce 6-3 2-6 7-5 in the quarter-final.

At the new event, Masters of Champions Tournament, Martina loss to Anke Huber in a five set thriller on 7th December ‘97. Having defeated Anke in straight sets 6-4 7-6 in the group match, Martina went into the final with a 100% record at this event, but Anke picked up her form during the week and won 2-6 6-3 2-6 6-2 7-5. Apart from the Chase Championships, this is the only other tournament on the WTA Tour where the ladies play a best-of-five sets match. Martina ends the season with a WTA win/loss record of 75-5, but an overall win/loss record of 82-6, including the Hopman Cup and the Master of Champions. All of Martina’s 6 losses in ‘97 went into a deciding set, including this five set marathon.

Martina also picked up the Best Overseas Player award from the BBC. Martina said it was a great honour for her to receive an award which so many top players have won in the past (Navratilova, Becker etc.).

‘98 began in completely the opposite fashion for Martina, having had a 40 match winning streak to start ‘97, Martina lost her first match of ‘98 to Venus Williams at the Adidas International, in Sydney, having recieved a bye in the first round. Martina continued the trend set last season of losing in three sets. This time 3-6 6-4 7-5. However Martina also continued the trend of winning the doubles title when losing the singles, when she partnered Helena Sukova to defeat Meredith McGrath and. Martina’s loss to Venus marked the first time since March ‘96 where she has failed to win her first match at a tournament.

On 31st January ‘98, Martina became the youngest person in the Open Era to retain a Grand Slam title, beating Monica Seles record, when she succesfully retained her Australian Open singles title. Lottie Dod still holds the record, when she retained her Wimbledon singles title in the 1800’s. (However, Martina is still the youngest champion when she won the doubles event at Wimbledon in ‘95!) Martina defeated Conchita Martinez 6-3 6-3 in 1 hour and 26 minutes. Martina also retained her doubles title the previous day, when she paired up with Mirjana Lucic as a wild card entry, (because Mirjana didn’t have a doubles ranking since she has never played doubles on the WTA Tour.). They defeated Lindsay Davenport and Natasha Zvereva, the top seeds, 6-4 2-6 6-3 in the final having defeated the second seeds Arantxa Sanchez Vicario and Manon Bollegraf and the eighth seeds Anna Kounikova and Larisa Neiland! However on this day, Martina also lost a title - the youngest champion at the Australian Open. Mirjana Lucic stole that off her when they won the doubles!

Martina’s up-and-down form of ‘98 continued, as Martina suffered her second loss of ‘98 at the Toray Pan Pacific Open, in Tokyo. Martina was defeated by Lindsay Davenport in the final 6-3 6-3, breaking the trend of losing in three sets!

In February ‘98, Martina visited Nepal as the Goodwill Ambassador for WHO, seeing how the money she donated was being spent. She was able to see the poor living conditions of the people of Nepal.