Martina Hingis has reported that she will not come back to tennis following her two-year ban in 2007 for testing positive for cocaine. She says she is happy with her new life. “I’ve got a nice house, my four horses. On the tour, I had no life.” She added that if she had not been tested positive for cocaine, she likely would have retired anyway. She says she was on a downslope. After being suspended for two years, that was it. No more tennis.
Hingis tested positive for cocaine after a third-round loss at Wimbledon in 2007. Both cocaine tests (samples A and B) turned positive. She has continued to deny using the drug. But she did say she went through hard times during her suspension. “I didn’t have the right to play any competition, even in another Olympic sport,” she said. “I didn’t have the right to feature in equestrian competition, even at an amateur level. … I’m not sure I have completely recovered.”
Hingis was ranked as the No. 1 player on the WTA Tour for 209 weeks and won five Grand Slam singles titles. During her career, she earned $20,130,657, which would buy a lot of drugs if one were so inclined!
In 2002, Hingis quit tennis for the first time because of foot and leg injuries. When she returned to the circuit after three years away from tennis in 2006, she reached two Grand Slam quarterfinals, won two smaller tournaments and finished the year at No. 7. On may 22, 2006, she was awarded the Laureus World Comeback of the Year Award at the seventh annual Laureus World Sports Awards in Barcelona, Spain. At that awards banquet, she was described as “one of the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour’s most exciting players.”
So, has tennis lost another good comeback possibility? 
Kim Clijsters 
has already shown she is the real deal on the comeback circuit, winning the 2009 U.S. Open. Justine Henin is planning to attempt a comeback starting with Brisbane International leading up to the Australian Open in 2010. Hingis is 29, Henin is 27, and Clijsters is 26. Perhaps Hingis was getting too old anyway. Maybe she thought she wasn’t capable of competing on a high level and making a comeback. Maybe a “false positive” for cocaine gave her the excuse she needed to quit tennis. After all, she did say she probably would have retired anyway, even without the drug suspension. Either way, it seems she was on her way out.
Sources: Sony Ericcson WTA Tour, Yahoo! Sports, Wikipedia
