Return to the game

In February 2005, Hingis made an unsuccessful return to competition at an event in Pattaya, Thailand, where she lost to Germany's Marlene Weingartner in the first round. After the loss, she claimed that she had no further plans for a comeback.

Hingis, however, resurfaced in July, playing singles, doubles, and mixed doubles in World Team Tennis and notching up singles victories over two top 100 players and shutting out Martina Navrátilová in singles on July 7th. With these promising results behind her, Hingis announced on November 29 her return to the WTA Tour in 2006.

Her Grand Slam comeback debut was at the 2006 Australian Open, where she reached the quarterfinals before losing to Kim Clijsters, the second seed. However, Hingis won the mixed doubles title with Mahesh Bhupathi of India. This was her first career Grand Slam mixed doubles title and fifteenth overall (5 singles, 9 women's doubles, 1 mixed doubles).

On May 19, 2006, Hingis posted her 500th career singles match victory in the quarterfinals of the Tier I Italian Open in Rome, beating top 20 player Flavia Pennetta, and two days later won the tournament. This was her 41st WTA tour singles title and first in more than four years. Hingis then reached the quarterfinals at the French Open, losing to Clijsters, and the third round at Wimbledon, losing to Ai Sugiyama. Her U.S. Open return was short lived, losing in the second round 6-2, 6-4 to Virginie Razzano, who was ranked outside the top 100.

In her first tournament since the U.S. Open, Hingis won the second title of her comeback at the Tier III Sunfeast Open in Kolkata, India. She defeated unseeded Russian Olga Poutchkova 6-0, 6-4 in the final after defeating Sania Mirza 6-1, 6-0 in a semifinal. The following week in Seoul, Hingis notched her 50th match win of the year before losing in the second round to Mirza 4-6, 6-0, 6-4.

During her 8 months back on the WTA tour, Hingis has reached three Tier I finals - the first in Tokyo (falling to Elena Dementieva 6-2, 6-0, after defeating Maria Sharapova in a semifinal), then in Rome (winning the title over Dinara Safina 6-2, 7-5), and in Montreal (falling to Ana Ivanović 6-2, 6-3). She has beaten several top players in her comeback, including Sharapova, Lindsay Davenport, Dementieva, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Nadia Petrova and Venus Williams.

Hingis qualified for the end of year WTA Tour Championships in Madrid as the eighth seed. In her three round robin matches, she lost in three sets to both Justine Henin-Hardenne and Amelie Mauresmo but defeated Nadia Petrova 6-4, 3-6, 6-3.

Hingis ended the year ranked No. 7 in the WTA rankings, which is based on the previous 52 weeks of results. In the 2006 Race to the Sony Ericsson Championships rankings, she also finished No. 7. She finished 8th in prize money earnings during 2006 (U.S. $1,159,537).

Hingis started 2007 by reaching the final of a Tier III event, the Australian Hardcourt Championships in Gold Coast, Australia, losing to Dinara Safina of Russia 6-3, 3-6, 7-5. The next week at the Medibank International in Sydney, Hingis lost her first round match to Jelena Janković in three sets.

At the 2007 Australian Open, Hingis won her first three rounds without losing a set before defeating China's Na Li in the fourth round 4-6, 6-3, 6-0. Hingis then lost a quarterfinal match to Kim Clijsters 3-6, 6-4, 6-3. 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, Japan, defeating Ana Ivanović in the final 6-4, 6-2. This was Hingis's record fifth singles title at this event.

Three weeks later, Hingis lost for the second time this year to Janković in the quarterfinals of the Dubai Duty Free Women's Open. At the Qatar Total Open in Doha, Hingis lost to Daniela Hantuchova 1-6, 6-4, 6-4 in the quarterfinals after being up a set and 4-1 (40-0) in the second set. In women's doubles, Hingis teamed with Maria Kirilenko to win the title, defeating Agnes Szavay and Vladimira Uhlirova in the final 6-1, 6-1.

At the Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells, California, which was the second Tier I tournament of the year, Hingis again lost to Hantuchova, this time in the fourth round 6-4, 6-3. Hingis was up a service break in both sets but, as in Doha, could not hold her lead.

At the Tier I Sony Ericsson Open in Key Biscayne, Florida, Hingis again failed to reach the quarterfinals, losing in the third round to Agnieszka Radwańska of Poland 4-6, 6-3, 6-2.

Her next tournament was the Qatar Telecom German Open, where she fell in the third round to compatriot Patty Schnyder 6-4, 6-0. A hip injury that troubled her at the German Open (she took painkillers for her matches) caused her to withdraw from the Telecom Italia Masters Roma, where she was the defending champion, and the French Open, the only Grand Slam singles title that has eluded her.

In her first round match at Wimbledon Hingis saved two match points to defeat British wildcard Naomi Cavaday. Afterwards it emerged Martina had not fully recovered from the hip injury that prevented her from playing in Roland Garros. In the third round Hingis lost to Laura Granville of the United States 6-4, 6-2 and claimed afterwards she should not have entered the tournament. In San Diego, Martina defeated Michaella Krajicek 7-5 6-2 before falling to an in-form Patty Schnyder 6-1 6-7(4) 6-3. Hingis was leading 3-1 in the final set before losing 5 straight games.

In August 2007, Hingis lost to Sania Mirza 6-2, 2-6, 6-4 in a second-round match of East West Bank Classic WTA Tournament.

Her next tournament was the last grand slam of the year, the U.S. Open, the same Open that she won exactly ten years ago for the first time. Fortunately for Hingis, she got stuck in the bottom, less competitive part of the draw. After winning in the first two rounds, many commentators had been saying that if she continued to play the way she was, she had a chance of making the semi-finals with her variety of shots instead of the hard hitting players that make up most of the womens tour. If she won in the third round, her likely opponent would have been fourth seeded, and 2004 champion, Svetlana Kuznetsova, who has been known to be great when she plays well, but very inconsistent. With the recent exit of last years champion and number two seed, Maria Sharapova, the bottom half had been blown wide open, with anyone having a chance to make the finals, including Hingis.

Unfortunately, Hingis crashed out of the third round losing to Belorussian teenager Victoria Azarenka 6-3, 1-6, 0-6; however, she will gain points for improving by one round from her shock second round exit last year.

In September 2007, Hingis played at her debut tournament in Beijing. She had a comfortable first round win over Chinese youngster Tian Tian Sun 6-2, 6-3; however, her winning form was halted when she lost in the second round to Chinese star Shuai Peng in straight sets 7-5, 6-1.

 Source: wikipedia.org .  This article is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.