Martina Hingis is used to busting myths. No, we are not just referring to her gleeful pursuit of Grand Slam titles. Or, for that matter, her enigmatic failure at staying retired.
Back in India to participate in the Champions Tennis League, the 35-year-old ‘Swiss Miss’ is basking in the glory of an extremely successful season with Sania Mirza. Sample this: Hingis and Mirza took part in 10 finals, winning a whopping nine of them. That’s two Grand Slam crowns (Wimbledon, US Open), five WTA Premier trophies (Indian Wells, Miami, Charleston, Wuhan and Beijing), one WTA International title (Guangzhou) and the season-ending WTA Finals in Singapore.
Not surprisingly, the duo finished the year at the top of the rankings.
Surreal is one word that can, perhaps, sum up Hingis’s life. How else do you make sense of a topsy-turvy journey replete with prodigy status, legendary crests, two retirements and as many comebacks apart from horse riding, marriage, divorce and drugs?
“As a teenager you have ups and downs and you go through different emotions. As you grow older, you are able to control those emotions better,” Hingis, who is set to represent the Hyderabad Aces, tells The Hindu.
At 35, Hingis is almost sage-like. No wonder, then, that she has no qualms in quashing the notion that India can’t produce another crop of Leanders and Sanias. She talks about investing time, money and energy in a proper system. Tournaments like the CTL, she reckons, are helping move things in the right direction.
“You have beautiful stadiums here. When I played here last year, I was impressed. Here, you don’t need indoor facilities because you have the infrastructure. We didn’t have this [in Switzerland],” she says.
Eh? Then how did the land of banks, watches and chocolates also produce Hingis, Roger Federer and Stan Wawrinka among others?
“We didn’t have one tennis facility like this back home. We used to find it expensive to train. We used to be supported by individuals. You obviously need role models and you have that in the form of Leander [Paes] and Mahesh [Bhupathi]. Sania has made a lot of girls pick up the tennis racquet.
“You have stadiums in Hyderabad, Mumbai, New Delhi and Pune. We didn’t have any of this because it is so cold for seven months of the year. Still we have Wawrinka and Federer and Hingis and, now, Belinda [Bencic],” she adds.
Why, then, is India struggling to unearth prodigies? “It takes time to create champions. You need role models. When I was coming up, there were few girls around. I mean I used to play against housewives!
“You need to play plenty of tournaments. I couldn’t play kids my age because they didn’t exist. Now, Switzerland encourages age-group tennis. India will have [new players] sometime soon. It took the Czech Republic 50 to 60 years to produce results. It took Switzerland 20 to 30 years,” she says.