eBestMagazine

Martina Hingis Retires after Testing Positive for Cocaine

Former World No. 1 tennis player Martina Hingis decided to end her sporting career after she has reportedly tested positive for using cocaine during this year’s Wimbledon tournament.

The 27-year-old Swiss denied that she ever used drugs. Instead, she suggested that somebody from her entourage may have “viciously” poured the substance in a spiked fruit drink and then handed it to her.

Hingis won five Grand Slam tournaments and retired from tennis in 2002 just to make a come back two years ago. Nevertheless, this season she has struggled with a hip injury. She lost in the third round at Wimbledon to Laura Granville, 6-4, 6-2.

“I am frustrated and angry. I believe that I am absolutely, 100 percent innocent,” she said.

Hingis said she was accused by “an outsource testing company” of taking cocaine during Wimbledon. She said she was “shocked and appalled” when notified that her urine sample came back positive after the loss to Granville.

“They say that cocaine increases self-confidence and creates a type of euphoria,” she said in a statement. “I don’t know. I only know that if I were to try to hit the ball while in any state of euphoria, it simply wouldn’t work. “I would think that it would be impossible for anyone to maintain the coordination required to play top class tennis while under the influence of drugs. And I know one other thing — I would personally be terrified of taking drugs.”

Hingis said the positive test, which could lead to a doping suspension of up to two years, led to her retirement because she doesn’t want to spend years fighting the case.

The test was on June 29 but that Hingis heard about the positive result in mid-September and the positive ‘B’ sample two or three weeks later.

WTA Tour chief executive Larry Scott said the tour had not received any official information about a positive test and “as a result we are not in a position to comment on the matter.”

“However, it is important to remember that in the area of anti-doping, all players are presumed innocent until proven otherwise,” Scott said.

Former top-ranked player Mats Wilander and Karel Novacek had positive tests for cocaine at the 1995 French Open. Both were banned for three months and ordered to return prize money and forfeit rankings points.

Others have tested positive for a variety of banned substances.

Martina Hingis’s Career

On March 31, 1997, Hingis became the youngest female player ever to lead the world rankings. She was 16 years, 6 months and 1 day at the time. She is currently ranked No. 19.

She won three straight Australian Open titles from 1997-99, and Wimbledon and the U.S. Open championships in 1997. She came within one match of winning the Grand Slam in 1997, losing only in the French Open final.

Hingis, who lost in the third round of the U.S. Open, hasn’t played since her second-round loss to Peng Shuai of China, 7-5, 6-1, in Beijing on Sept. 19.

Share This