Hingis began playing tennis when she was two years old and entered her first tournament at age four. In 1993, 12-year-old Hingis became the youngest player to win a
Grand Slam junior title: the girls' singles at the French Open. In 1994, she retained her French Open junior title, won the girls' singles title at
Wimbledon, and reached the final of the US Open. She made her WTA debut at the
Zurich Open in October 1994, two weeks after turning 14, and ended 1994 ranked world No. 87. She also won her first professional singles title that year at
Filderstadt, Germany. She reached the singles quarterfinals of the 1996 Australian Open and the singles semifinals of the 1996
US Open. Following her win at Filderstadt, Hingis defeated the reigning Australian Open champion and co-top ranked (with
Steffi Graf)
Monica Seles in the final in Oakland, but lost to Graf in the year-end
WTA Tour Championships final in five sets.
1997 In 1997, Hingis became the World No. 1 women's tennis player. She started the year by winning the warm-up tournament in Sydney. She then became the youngest
Grand Slam singles winner in the 20th century by winning the Australian Open at age 16 years and 3 months (beating former champion
Mary Pierce in the final). She also won the Australian Open women's doubles with
Natasha Zvereva. In March, she became the youngest top ranked player in history. In July, she became the youngest singles champion at Wimbledon since
Lottie Dod in 1887 by beating
Jana Novotná in the final. She then defeated another up-and-coming player,
Venus Williams, in the final of the US Open. The only Grand Slam singles title that Hingis failed to win in 1997 was the French Open, where she lost in the final to
Iva Majoli.
1998: Doubles Grand Slam In 1998, Hingis won all four of the Grand Slam women's doubles titles, only the fourth in women's tennis history to do so, (the Australian Open with
Mirjana Lučić and the other three events with Novotná), and she became only the third woman to hold the No. 1 ranking in both singles and doubles simultaneously. She also retained her Australian Open singles title by beating
Conchita Martínez in straight sets in the final. Hingis, however, lost in the final of the US Open to
Lindsay Davenport. Davenport ended an 80-week stretch Hingis had enjoyed as the No. 1 singles player in October 1998, but Hingis finished the year by beating Davenport in the final of the WTA Tour Championships.
1999 at the Sydney WTA tournament, 2002 1999 saw Hingis win her third successive Australian Open singles crown as well as the doubles title (with
Anna Kournikova). She had dropped her former doubles partner Jana Novotná. She then reached the French Open final and was three points away from victory in the second set before losing to Steffi Graf about whom she had said before: "Steffi had some results in the past, but it's a faster, more athletic game now... She is old now. Her time has passed." She broke into tears after a game in which the crowd had booed her for using underhand serves and crossing the line in a discussion about an umpire decision. After a shock first-round, straight set, loss to
Jelena Dokić at Wimbledon, Hingis bounced back to reach her third consecutive US Open final, where she lost to 17-year-old
Serena Williams. Hingis won a total of seven singles titles that year and reclaimed the No. 1 singles ranking. She also reached the final of the WTA Tour Championships, where she lost to Lindsay Davenport. she kept the year end No. 1 ranking because of nine tournament championships, including the WTA Tour Championships where she won the singles and doubles titles.
Injuries and first retirement from tennis (2001–2003) 2001 In 2001,
Switzerland, with Hingis and
Roger Federer on its team, won the
Hopman Cup. Hingis didn't drop a set in any of her singles matches during the event, defeating
Tamarine Tanasugarn,
Nicole Pratt,
Amanda Coetzer, and Monica Seles. In 2018, after his second Hopman Cup victory, Federer was quoted as saying: "I learned a lot from her, especially the two years I was here – once as a hitting partner and once as a partner with Martina. Definitely she helped me to become the player I am today." Hingis reached her fifth consecutive
Australian Open final in 2001, defeating both of the
Williams sisters en route, before losing to
Jennifer Capriati. She briefly ended her coaching relationship with her mother Melanie early in the year but had a change of heart two months later just before the French Open. 2001 was her least successful year in several seasons, with only three tournament victories in total. She lost her No. 1 ranking for the last time (to Jennifer Capriati) on 14 October 2001. In that same month, Hingis underwent surgery on her right ankle.
2002 Coming back from injury, Hingis won the Australian Open doubles final at the start of 2002 (again teaming with Anna Kournikova) and reached a sixth straight Australian Open final in singles, again facing Capriati. Hingis led by a set and 4–0 and had four match points but lost in three sets. In May 2002, she needed another ankle ligament operation, this time on her left ankle. After that, she continued to struggle with injuries and was not able to recapture her best form.
2003 In February 2003, at the age of 22, Hingis announced her retirement from tennis, due to her injuries and being in pain. "I want to play tennis only for fun and concentrate more on horse riding and finish my studies." In several interviews, she indicated that she wished to return to her home country and coach full-time. During this segment of her tennis career (until what would become her first retirement), Hingis won a total of 40 singles titles and 36 doubles. She held the world No. 1 singles ranking for a total of 209 weeks (fifth most following Steffi Graf,
Martina Navratilova,
Chris Evert, and Serena Williams).
2007 At the
Australian Open, Hingis won her first three rounds without losing a set before defeating China's
Li Na in the fourth round. Hingis then lost a quarterfinal match to
Kim Clijsters. This was the second consecutive year that Hingis had lost to Clijsters in the quarterfinals of the Australian Open and the third time in the last five
Grand Slam tournaments that Clijsters had eliminated Hingis in the quarterfinals. Hingis won her next tournament, the Tier I
Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo, defeating
Ana Ivanovic in the final. This was Hingis's record fifth singles title at this event. A hip injury that troubled her at the
German Open caused her to withdraw from the
Rome Masters, where she was the defending champion, and the French Open, the only important singles title that eluded her. In her first round match at Wimbledon, Hingis saved two match points to defeat British wildcard
Naomi Cavaday, apparently not having fully recovered from the hip injury that prevented her from playing the French Open. In the third round, Hingis lost to
Laura Granville of the United States, and stated afterwards she should not have entered the tournament. Hingis's next tournament was the last Grand Slam tournament of the year, the US Open, in which Hingis lost in the third round to Belarusian teenager
Victoria Azarenka. Hingis did not play any tournaments after the
China Open, as she was beset by injuries for the rest of the year.
ITF suspension and second retirement (2007–2012) In November 2007, Hingis called a press conference to announce that she was under investigation for testing positive for
benzoylecgonine, a metabolite of cocaine, during a urine test taken by players at Wimbledon. Hingis's urine sample contained an estimated 42 nanograms per millilitre of benzoylecgonine. The
International Tennis Federation's report on the matter states that "the very low estimated concentration of benzoylecgonine (42 ng/ml) was such that it would go unreported in many drug testing programmes such as that of the US military, which uses a screening threshold of 150 ng/ml." In January 2008, the ITF's tribunal suspended Hingis from the sport for two years, effective from October 2007. At the time of Hingis's suspension, the ITF required an automatic two-year suspension for any players who tested positive for banned substances, regardless of extenuating circumstances such as contamination or extremely low detection levels. The ITF subsequently altered the suspension rules as a result of the Hingis case, allowing for future flexibility in cases of unintentional or unexplained ingestion.
2008–09 Having retired for the second time in 2007, Hingis played an exhibition match at the Liverpool International tournament on 13 June 2008. Although this event was a warm-up for Wimbledon, it was not part of the
WTA Tour. In a rematch of their
1997 Wimbledon final, Hingis defeated
Jana Novotná. In 2009, Hingis took part in the British television dancing competition
Strictly Come Dancing. She was the bookies' favourite for the competition, but went out in the first week after performing a waltz and a rumba.
2010 At the start of 2010, Hingis defeated former world No. 1
Lindsay Davenport, and hinted at a possible return to tennis. In February, she announced having committed to a full season with the
World TeamTennis tour in 2010. She had previously played for World TeamTennis in 2005 to assist her first comeback. Sparking thoughts that she was trying to come back to the WTA Tour, she committed to playing at the Nottingham Masters. On 5 May 2010, it was announced that Hingis would reunite with her doubles partner
Anna Kournikova. Kournikova was participating in competitive tennis for the first time in seven years, in the Invitational Ladies Doubles event at Wimbledon. Hingis also confirmed that she would play at the
Tradition-ICAP Liverpool International championship in June 2010, preceding Wimbledon, before playing in the Manchester Masters after Wimbledon. Liverpool like the Nottingham and Manchester Masters are organised by her management company Northern Vision. At the Nottingham Masters, Hingis faced
Michaëlla Krajicek (twice),
Olga Savchuk and
Monika Wejnert. Hingis won just once in the event, against Wejnert. After the Nottingham event,
Billie Jean King stated that she believed that Hingis might return to the WTA Tour on the doubles circuit, after competing in the WTT. On 3 July, Hingis partnering Lindsay Davenport won the Wimbledon Ladies' Invitation Doubles title, defeating Navratilova and Novotná in the final. She also played for the New York Sportimes of the World TeamTennis Pro League in July 2011. She finished the season with the top winning percentage of any player competing in women's singles.
2012 Hingis and Davenport successfully defended their Wimbledon Ladies' Invitation Doubles title in 2012, again beating Martina Navratilova and Jana Novotná in the final.
Second return and doubles success (2013–2017) 2013: Coming out of retirement In April 2013, Hingis agreed to coach
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova; however, after a disagreement about how to prepare for tournaments they parted ways in June. Hingis won the
Ladies' Invitation Doubles for a third year in a row at Wimbledon, again with Davenport. They beat Jana Novotná and
Barbara Schett in the final. Hingis was inducted into the
International Tennis Hall of Fame in July 2013, and in the same month, announced that she was coming out of retirement to play a doubles tournament, with Daniela Hantuchová as her partner, in Carlsbad, California. She was accepted as a wildcard entry. She also played doubles in Toronto, Cincinnati, New Haven, and the
US Open.
2014: US Open doubles finalist Hingis helped
Sabine Lisicki during the
Australian Open. She participated in
Champions Tennis League India to boost tennis in the country. Hingis returned to the WTA Tour at Indian Wells, partnering Lisicki in the doubles. They lost in the first round to three-time Grand Slam finalists
Ashleigh Barty and
Casey Dellacqua. At the
Miami Open, Hingis and Lisicki reached the finals of the tournament and then defeated Makarova and Vesnina in straight sets, marking Hingis's first title since she won the
Qatar Ladies Open in 2007 and her first Premier Mandatory doubles title since winning the 2001 title in Moscow. This was also her third win in Miami, having won her last title there in 1999. Hingis reached the final at Eastbourne with Pennetta where they lost to
Chan Hao-ching and
Chan Yung-jan of Taiwan. At the
Wimbledon Championships, she reached the quarterfinals with partner
Bruno Soares in mixed doubles, where they lost to
Daniel Nestor and
Kristina Mladenovic in straight sets. Entering as an unseeded team at the
US Open, Hingis and Pennetta reached the final, without losing a set in any of their matches. In the final they lost to Makarova and Vesnina in three sets. At the latter end of the season, Hingis and Flavia Pennetta won two titles. At the tournament in Wuhan, they beat Cara Black and
Caroline Garcia to take the title; in Moscow they beat
Caroline Garcia and
Arantxa Parra Santonja.
2015: Five major doubles titles In her first tournament of the year in Brisbane, Hingis and partner Sabine Lisicki didn't drop a set en route to the title, beating Caroline Garcia and
Katarina Srebotnik in straight sets in the final. Hingis played at the
Australian Open with Flavia Pennetta, as the fourth seeds, but lost in the third round. However, Hingis paired with
Leander Paes in the mixed doubles to
win the title. The win was her first in a major event since capturing the mixed-doubles crown at the 2006 Australian Open. After early exits with Pennetta at the Dubai Tennis Championships and Qatar Ladies Open, Hingis then partnered with Indian player
Sania Mirza; they won the first 20 sets they contested, subsequently winning back-to-back titles in two WTA Premier Mandatory events: the
Indian Wells Open and the
Miami Open, also winning afterwise the
Family Circle Cup. They were defeated in the first round in
Stuttgart. At the
Madrid Open they lost in the quarterfinals to
Australian Open champions Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Lucie Šafářová 11–9 in the super tie-break. They reached the quarterfinals of the
French Open, losing again to Mattek-Sands and Šafářová, this time in straight sets. Hingis made a comeback in
Fed Cup after a 17-year absence. She was scheduled to play doubles only, but then decided to try another comeback in singles by playing in the Fed Cup tie for Switzerland. She drew Agnieszka Radwańska in the first rubber and was defeated in two sets in her first official tour match since 2007. She lost her second singles rubber too, defeated by
Urszula Radwańska in three sets, having been a set and a double break up. On 11 July 2015, Hingis and Mirza beat Makarova and Vesnina in three tight sets, recovering from 5–2 down in the third to win
the women's doubles tournament at Wimbledon. The win gave Hingis her first Grand Slam in women's doubles since the 2002 Australian Open. The following day, Hingis then won
the mixed doubles final, partnering with Leander Paes, to defeat
Alexander Peya and
Tímea Babos in straight sets. After two semifinal losses in
Toronto and
Cincinnati, Hingis won the mixed doubles title at the
US Open on 12 September, partnering Paes, defeating
Sam Querrey and
Bethanie Mattek-Sands in three sets. The following day, Hingis and Mirza beat
Casey Dellacqua and
Yaroslava Shvedova in straight sets to win
the doubles tournament. At the WTA Finals, they won all their group matches, including against Kops-Jones/Spears, Hlaváčková/Hradecká and Babos/Mladenovic. In the semifinals they beat the Chan sisters, and then they beat the Spanish team Muguruza/Suárez Navarro to win the title. That month Hingis participated at the
Champions Tennis League in India, playing for the Hyderabad Aces team.
2016: Mixed-doubles career Grand Slam In January, Hingis and Mirza won at Brisbane and Sydney. They then won the doubles tournament at the
Australian Open, defeating Hlaváčková and Hradecká in the final, for their third consecutive Grand Slam title. Afterwards, Hingis said of their partnership: "There's not that many people who can match her in the forehand rallies and me on the backhand side and at the net. That's what we try to do every match." In mixed doubles, Hingis and Paes lost in the quarterfinals to Mirza and
Ivan Dodig. In February, Hingis represented
Switzerland in the
Fed Cup tie against
Germany alongside
Belinda Bencic and
Timea Bacsinszky. Switzerland beat Germany 3–2, with Hingis and Bencic clinching the doubles rubber. Switzerland advanced to the semifinals, where the team lost to the defending champions of the
Czech Republic. The Hingis-Mirza winning-streak record of 41 matches ended in the quarterfinals of the
Qatar Ladies Open, where they lost to
Kasatkina/Vesnina. Hingis and Mirza then proceeded to the
Indian Wells Open to defend their title. However, they suffered a shock as the unseeded
Vania King/
Alla Kudryavtseva defeated them in straight sets. At the
Miami Open, Mirza and Hingis lost in the second round to
Margarita Gasparyan and
Monica Niculescu. Hingis and Mirza started their clay season by reaching the finals of Porsche Tennis Grand Prix and Madrid Open, where they lost to
Kristina Mladenovic and
Caroline Garcia in both the tournaments. However, they won the Italian Open, defeating Makarova and Vesnina. At the
French Open, they were upset by Czech pair
Barbora Krejčíková and
Kateřina Siniaková in the third round, which ended their 20 match winning streak in Grand Slam doubles tournaments. Hingis won the
French Open mixed doubles partnering
Leander Paes. It is her first mixed doubles title at Roland Garros, and she completed the mixed-doubles
career Grand Slam, becoming only the fourth woman ever to complete a career Grand Slam in both women's doubles and mixed doubles. Hingis qualified for the
2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, 20 years after her last Olympic appearance. She played
doubles with Timea Bacsinszky and won the silver medal, losing to Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina in straight sets in the final. Hingis then played at the US Open with
CoCo Vandeweghe, where they made the semifinals and lost to top seeds Garcia and Mladenovic. At the WTA Finals, Hingis reunited with Sania Mirza in what would be the partnership's last tournament together; they defeated the Chan sisters in the quarterfinals but then lost to Makarova and Vesnina.
2017: Three major doubles titles, back to world No. 1, final retirement Hingis continued to partner CoCo Vandeweghe in women's doubles competition at the start of the
season. Together they reached the quarterfinals of the
Sydney International, losing to eventual champions Tímea Babos and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, and the second round of the
Australian Open, losing to the Australian duo of Ashleigh Barty and Casey Dellacqua. This capped a run of poor form, having gone 5–5 in tournaments since they made the semifinals at the
US Open the
previous season. As a result, Hingis split with Vandeweghe and entered a new partnership with
Taiwan's Chan Yung-jan, who herself had just split with her sister Hao-ching. In the
mixed doubles competition at the Australian Open, Hingis reached the quarterfinals with Leander Paes before losing to another Australian duo,
Samantha Stosur and
Sam Groth in straight sets. In preparation for the upcoming
Fed Cup quarterfinal match between
Switzerland and
France, Hingis partnered with Belinda Bencic to defend her
St. Petersburg title. The pair lost in the first round to
Gabriela Dabrowski and
Michaëlla Krajicek. In the Fed Cup quarterfinal match, Hingis instead paired up with Timea Bacsinszky and won their doubles match against
Amandine Hesse and Kristina Mladenovic, helping the team to a 4–1 victory to advance to the semifinals. In the first two tournaments of their new partnership, Hingis and Chan suffered some "tough" losses. They fell to
Olga Savchuk and Yaroslava Shvedova in the semifinals of the
Qatar Open and to Andrea Hlaváčková and Peng Shuai in straight sets in the quarterfinals of the
Dubai Tennis Championships. However, they immediately rebounded by winning their first title together at the
Indian Wells Open, defeating Hingis's old partner Sania Mirza with Barbora Strýcová in the quarterfinals, top seeded Mattek-Sands and Šafářová in the semifinals, and Czech pair Lucie Hradecká and Kateřina Siniaková in the final. They then reached the semifinals of the
Miami Open, before losing to Mirza and Strýcová. Hingis again sought to practice with a
Swiss partner before the
Fed Cup semifinal clash of
Switzerland versus
Belarus, and this time paired up with Bacsinszky to enter the inaugural
Ladies Open Biel Bienne. Hingis and Bacsinszky reached the final, succumbing there to
Hsieh Su-wei and
Monica Niculescu. Despite winning her doubles rubber with Bacsinszky in the Fed Cup semifinal tie, Switzerland would ultimately lose 2–3. Switzerland had been seeking to reach its first final since Hingis had spearheaded the team to a narrow defeat to
Spain in
1998. In the clay-court season, Hingis and Chan continued their good form to win back-to-back titles at the
Madrid and
Italian Opens, defeating
Tímea Babos and
Andrea Hlaváčková and
Ekaterina Makarova and
Elena Vesnina respectively, in the finals of each event. Hingis's victory in Madrid was her 100th WTA career title. This success marked the pair as one of the pre-tournament favorites to win the
French Open. Hingis and Chan reached the semifinals, where their 12 match winning streak was ended by eventual champions Mattek-Sands and Šafářová. Hingis and Paes lost in the opening round of the
mixed doubles competition to
Katarina Srebotnik and
Raven Klaasen in a super tiebreak. Hingis and Chan again won back-to-back titles, this time at the
Mallorca Open and the
Eastbourne International. At Mallorca, they won the title by walkover after Jelena Janković and
Anastasija Sevastova withdrew from the title match owing to an injury sustained by Sevastova in the singles competition. At Eastbourne, they won after defeating Barty and Dellacqua in the final. However, like the French Open two months previous, Hingis and Chan could not replicate the success at Grand Slam level: losing at the quarterfinal stage to Grönefeld and Peschke at
Wimbledon. In the
mixed doubles competition, Hingis paired up with new partner Great Britain's
Jamie Murray after splitting from Leander Paes. As top seeds they reached the final without losing a set, before defeating defending champions
Heather Watson and
Henri Kontinen in the championship match. Hingis and Chan next played at the
Canadian Open, where the German-Czech pair of Grönefeld and Peschke defeated them for the second tournament in a row in the quarterfinals. However, not to be deterred, a week later at the
Cincinnati Open they produced another winning run and defeated Hsieh and Niculescu in the final to capture their next title together. On 14 August, Hingis and Chan became one of the first teams to qualify for the doubles competition at the year-end
WTA Finals. At the
US Open, Hingis emerged victorious from both the
women's and the
mixed doubles competition. Jamie Murray and she defeated Chan Hao-ching and
Michael Venus in the final to capture their second consecutive title together and remain undefeated as a pair. Then, less than 24 hours later with Chan, they defeated Hradecká and Siniaková in the final to win their first major title together. In total, this was Hingis's 25th Grand Slam title across all disciplines. Hingis and Chan extended their winning run to 18 matches in China by winning their third and fourth straight titles: the
Wuhan and
China Opens. In Wuhan, they defeated
Shuko Aoyama and
Yang Zhaoxuan in the final. With this win, Hingis ascended to the No. 1 ranking on 2 October for the 67th week in her career. In Beijing, they defeated Babos and Hlaváčková. Hingis announced her retirement at the WTA Finals in Singapore in October 2017. ==Playing style==