Singapore: Swiss great Martina Hingis announced Friday she will retire from tennis at the end of this week’s WTA Finals, where the 37-year-old multiple Grand Slam champion is playing in the doubles tournament alongside Taiwan’s Chan Yung-jan.
“Looking back now, it’s hard to believe that almost exactly 23 years ago I made my professional debut,” Hingis had earlier said on her Facebook page, Thursday. “The years that followed have been some of the most rewarding years of my life, both personally and professionally, but I believe the time has come for me to retire, which I will be doing after my last match here in Singapore.”
The retirement will be Hingis’s third in a long and illustrious career during which she claimed 25 Grand Slam titles since her WTA Tour debut in 1994, five in singles, seven in mixed doubles and 13 in women’s doubles.
Hingis had first announcement in 2003, before returning to the tour in 2006. She retired a year later after being handed a two-year ban for testing positive for cocaine. Then she again came back in 2013.
Talking to reporters here Friday, Hingis said, “I’ll be always part of the game of tennis. Somehow we will be connected. I will definitely take some time out. I have done coaching before. I can help my mom, her tennis school. I will be connected,” she said.
Reuters
