No Grand Return for the Swiss Miss

Having made a much-anticipated return to doubles earlier this summer, Martina Hingis was ready to take over the biggest stages, as she continued her partnership with Slovak Daniela Hantuchova to make her Grand Slam comeback at the US Open. 

Since teaming up at the beginning of the North American hardcourt season, Martina and Daniela have only won three matches, losing in the second round in Carlsbad, Toronto and Cincinnati, and the opening round in New Haven. They have been pretty unlucky as far as the draws were concerned, but still, it seems the Swiss Miss needs some time to readjust to the rigours and the updated rules of the WTA tour. 

In New York, the fan-favourite duo have once again been extremely unlucky, being drawn against world No.1's and defending champions, Italians Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci, in the first round. In a highly entertaining encounter, Hingis and Hantuchova played a solid match, before Martina's nerves got the best of her. The Swiss double-falted on the final point, gifting their opponents a 6-3,7-5 victory. "The draw didn't help to play the champion number one seeds," Hingis said. "They had to play well against us but definitely not an easy challenge the first Grand Slam back in it. Definitely we had our chances. We have to take them, too."

Unfortunately for the Swiss Miss, more bad news followed, as she lost her first round mixed-doubles match too. At the end of another nail-biter, Hingis and Indian doubles legend, Mahesh Bhupathi, succumbed 6-7,6-7 to Taiwan's Chan Yung-Jan and Sweden's Robert Lindstedt. Asked to evaluate her results, Martina declared: "I wish I was winning. It would help to win some matches for confidence," she confessed. "Maybe hardcourt is not the easiest one to come back to, playing eight weeks in a row. My body is screaming, 'What are you doing to me?'"

Despite the disappointing performances, Martina is determined to carry on with her plans. "I always play tennis to win matches and tournaments," she said. "We've been close." She and Hantuchova are scheduled to compete in Tokyo and Beijing. Let's go Hingis, let's unravel the doubles magic!

Facing an unlucky draw, Martina and Daniela could not make it past the first round, losing 3-6,5-7 to world No.1s, Italians Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci.

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The Swiss Miss is Back

When she tested positive for cocaine in 2007, Hingis' career looked to be headed for an abrupt, sad ending. Although she strongly denied the allegation, the Swiss Miss decided not to fight the decision and chose to retire immediately. Her love for the sport would not succumb though and in recent years, Martina has assumed a relatively active role, playing the World Team Tennis, accepting invitations to several Grand Slams, as well as coaching Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova for a short period this spring. The Swiss also launched her own fashion line in collaboration with Tonic.
Probably her short-lived pro career keep haunting her, and just a few days after being inducted into the Tennis Hall of Fame, Martina announced she is making a second comeback, teaming up with Daniela Hantuchova to play doubles in Carlsbad. Following her first round win, the Swiss Miss revealed her plans, which includes competing at Toronto, Cincinnati and the US Open. She made no commitment beyond that though, saying: "If it's a complete disaster, I would not want to continue, but I hope that's not the case. I don't have any expectations, but I wouldn't put myself in this position if I didn't feel that I couldn't compete at this level. In (World) Team Tennis I was good enough, but is it good enough to be able to compete at this level? We'll see."
Judging by the commanding performance in her first round match, it definitely seems Martina's level is good enough to enable her to compete with the world's best. Hingis and Daniela launched their campaign in style, rooting recent Stanford finalist, Julia Goerges and Darija Jurak, 6-1,6-1 in 51 minutes. Their next opponents are none other than Stanford winners, American Raquel Kops-Jones and Abigail Spears.
Despite the successful comeback, Hingis claims she won't be playing singles, at least "not at this point." "You have to put so much effort into it. Playing tournaments is the easy part, but it's all the behind the scenes training that people don't see, the six to eight hours of training and really the older you get, the harder it gets. I wouldn't want to come out and play one or two matches and lose in the third round. That's not my type of personality."

Independent on the results, it's a great treat to have my old time favourite back on the WTA tour. Martina is a pretty competitive player who is still hungry for success, so I am sure she will achieve great results with Daniela. If all goes well, I believe we will see the Swiss Miss play singles pretty soon, mostly probably at next year's Australian Open. You go Martina, show them how to play tennis!

After winning all the invitation majors she entered in the last couple of years, Hingis decided to make a second comeback to the WTA tour, teaming up with Slovak Daniela Hantuchova to play in Carlsbad. The duo won their opening match 6-1,6-1 in 51 minutes.

A fan favourite all over the world, Martina's long-awaited comeback made the delight of the Carlsbad crowd, who were ecstatic to see the Swiss Miss back on action.

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