MEAC_ALLAMERICAN
Legend
Hampered By Hip Injury, Hingis Pulls Plug On Season
Martina Hingis won't be making a homecoming appearance next week as her season has has come to an end before she could return to the tournament where it all began. Three-time Zurich finalist Hingis has withdrawn from next week's Zurich Open with a chronic hip injury that has prompted her to plug on her season.
The 19th-ranked Swiss, who has not played a match since her 7-5, 6-1 setback to 49th-ranked Shuai Peng in Beijing last month, said her sore hip prevents her from practicing.
"I’m very disappointed that I have to withdraw from the Zurich Open and that I can't play in front of my home crowd," said Hingis in a statement posted on the Zurich Open web site. "I love the city and the tournament, both of which bring back so many good memories. I’ve done everything I can to be able to compete, but since Key Biscayne I’ve had problems with my hip, and they’re still stopping me from playing any more tournaments this year tournaments and even from practicing properly. I’ve therefore decided that I’m going to take as much time as it needs to get fully fit again."
At the age of 14 Hingis made her professional in Zurich in 1994. Receiving a wild card into the main draw, the 378th-ranked Hingis beat American Patty Fendick, 6-4, 6-3, to record her first professional victory before bowing to fifth-ranked Mary Pierce, 6-4, 6-0, in the second round. Hingis has posted a 16-6 record in Zurich, including three trips to the tournament final. She defeated Lindsay Davenport, 6-4, 4-6, 7-5, to win the 2000 Zurich title after falling to Venus Williams in the 1999 final and to Jana Novotna in the 1996 final. A year ago, Hingis reached the Zurich quarterfinals, losing to Svetlana Kuznetsova.
The former World No. 1 opened the season on a 12-3 tear, but has slumped to a 12-10 mark since she beat Ana Ivanovic, 6-4, 6-2, to capture the Tier I Tokyo title in February. Hampered by the hip injury she initially sustained at the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami in March, Hingis has not reached a semifinal in her last 10 tournament appearances.
Timea Bacsinszky, Maria Kirilenko and Michaella Krajicek have been awarded wild cards into the Tier I tournament.
The euphoria of her triumphant 2006 comeback after a three-year layoff from tournament tennis has subsided a bit as Hingis, who was so rarely injured during her days of dominance, has found herself in a bit of a tennis Catch-22: she needs more matches to remain competitively sharp yet her body does not recover as quickly as it once did and the heavier workload has resulted in injury-induced inactivity.
The 27-year-old Hingis believes she is a better player now than the teenager who captured 12 tournament titles and posted a .938 winning percentage a decade ago, but concedes the game itself has progressed dramatically and she finds herself sometimes fighting just to keep up with the physical demands of the pro circuit.
"I think the game evolves all the time, so you have to think you're a better player today," Hingis said during last month's U.S. Open. "I used to recover faster when I was younger. I was kind of an ongoing [Energizer] bunny, like in the ads, because I used to play so much more. When I think of '97, I also played doubles matches along with singles. I just really played a lot of tennis at that time. That kind of kept me going for the next four, five years. It's not like that anymore. I really have to tell myself differently now."
http://sports.yahoo.com/ten/news?slug=reu-hingisdc&prov=reuters&type=lgns
Martina Hingis won't be making a homecoming appearance next week as her season has has come to an end before she could return to the tournament where it all began. Three-time Zurich finalist Hingis has withdrawn from next week's Zurich Open with a chronic hip injury that has prompted her to plug on her season.
The 19th-ranked Swiss, who has not played a match since her 7-5, 6-1 setback to 49th-ranked Shuai Peng in Beijing last month, said her sore hip prevents her from practicing.
"I’m very disappointed that I have to withdraw from the Zurich Open and that I can't play in front of my home crowd," said Hingis in a statement posted on the Zurich Open web site. "I love the city and the tournament, both of which bring back so many good memories. I’ve done everything I can to be able to compete, but since Key Biscayne I’ve had problems with my hip, and they’re still stopping me from playing any more tournaments this year tournaments and even from practicing properly. I’ve therefore decided that I’m going to take as much time as it needs to get fully fit again."
At the age of 14 Hingis made her professional in Zurich in 1994. Receiving a wild card into the main draw, the 378th-ranked Hingis beat American Patty Fendick, 6-4, 6-3, to record her first professional victory before bowing to fifth-ranked Mary Pierce, 6-4, 6-0, in the second round. Hingis has posted a 16-6 record in Zurich, including three trips to the tournament final. She defeated Lindsay Davenport, 6-4, 4-6, 7-5, to win the 2000 Zurich title after falling to Venus Williams in the 1999 final and to Jana Novotna in the 1996 final. A year ago, Hingis reached the Zurich quarterfinals, losing to Svetlana Kuznetsova.
The former World No. 1 opened the season on a 12-3 tear, but has slumped to a 12-10 mark since she beat Ana Ivanovic, 6-4, 6-2, to capture the Tier I Tokyo title in February. Hampered by the hip injury she initially sustained at the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami in March, Hingis has not reached a semifinal in her last 10 tournament appearances.
Timea Bacsinszky, Maria Kirilenko and Michaella Krajicek have been awarded wild cards into the Tier I tournament.
The euphoria of her triumphant 2006 comeback after a three-year layoff from tournament tennis has subsided a bit as Hingis, who was so rarely injured during her days of dominance, has found herself in a bit of a tennis Catch-22: she needs more matches to remain competitively sharp yet her body does not recover as quickly as it once did and the heavier workload has resulted in injury-induced inactivity.
The 27-year-old Hingis believes she is a better player now than the teenager who captured 12 tournament titles and posted a .938 winning percentage a decade ago, but concedes the game itself has progressed dramatically and she finds herself sometimes fighting just to keep up with the physical demands of the pro circuit.
"I think the game evolves all the time, so you have to think you're a better player today," Hingis said during last month's U.S. Open. "I used to recover faster when I was younger. I was kind of an ongoing [Energizer] bunny, like in the ads, because I used to play so much more. When I think of '97, I also played doubles matches along with singles. I just really played a lot of tennis at that time. That kind of kept me going for the next four, five years. It's not like that anymore. I really have to tell myself differently now."
http://sports.yahoo.com/ten/news?slug=reu-hingisdc&prov=reuters&type=lgns
