Hyderabad: In her prime, Martina Hingis was a young woman in a hurry — the youngest to win a Grand Slam title, youngest to achieve the World No.1 rank. Now, at 35, having come out of retirement, she seems to have taken off where she left. Her five Grand Slam doubles titles this year with Sania Mirza and Leander Paes provide ample evidence.
The Swiss Miss believes tennis is her heart-beat. “I love to play tennis — I think it’s always been there for me,” she told this newspaper on Friday. “I was gone for maybe three years but then I started playing some exhibition games and did some coaching and that got me back, thanks to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (whom she coached) and Sabine Lisicki, we won a tournament (the Sony Open in Miami in 2014) that got me pumped up and instilled belief that I could still come back,” Hingis explained the reboot.
Yes, she is fond of her current women’s and mixed doubles partners Sania and Leander respectively, and wants to take the partnerships forward. “It will be nice to continue the way we finished this season. I am looking forward to continuing to play with both of them in the next season,” Hingis said.
For now, she will carry the Hyderabad flag in the Champions Tennis League, matches of which will be held on Sunday and Monday, against the Nagpur Orangers and Chennai Warriors respectively.
“It feels great to have come here for a second time and we are looking forward to playing good tennis on the 29th and the 30th. Hopefully, we will continue in the same fashion that we started two days ago (when the Hyderabad Aces beat Chennai). We are looking forward to the Hyderabadi crowd (for support),” Hingis said.
The Superstar felt CTL will go a long way in promoting tennis in the country. “Vijay (Amritraj) is behind the CTL (format) which is an inspiration for everybody in this country. We also get to play in different cities and the juniors get to travel with us. Hopefully, we will be able to teach them a few things about the game. All teams have two junior players and that will help in the future of Indian tennis. This will bring India a step closer to churning champions. I am happy to be part of it,” Hingis said.
Speaking about tennis in India, she said: “Any country needs role models and it’s unbelievable to have Leander (Paes), Mahesh (Bhupathi) and Sania (Mirza).” Sama Satwika and Adil Kalyanpur, the two Indian juniors on the Hyderabad side, were excited to be part of the ‘big’ team alongside Hingis, Thomas Johansson and Ivo Karlovic. “It’s amazing. I never thought I would be playing with the top players in the world before I could get there. It’s great to watch them warm-up, do their fitness and practice. I hope to get to their level — I am working hard towards it and this is a huge stepping stone for me,” said Adil.
Sama added: “I got to know the players well and what they do off-court as well. That’s a big lesson for me and I will draw from the exposure and experience. There’s lot to learn from their dedication, the way they think, practice and play.”
Bitter Swede for Scandinavians
Remember the days when Bjorn Borg, Stefan Edberg, Mats Wilander, Jonas Bjorkman strode the tennis courts to stamp Swedish supremacy? Then came Magnus Norman, Lar-son, Thomas Johansson and few ‘storms’ before Swedish tennis was gone with the wind.
Thomas Johansson of the Hyderabad Aces surely rues the steep decline. “How much time do we have here?” he asked jocularly when reasons were sought for the Swedish slide.
However, getting down to business, Johansson explained: “We don’t have the big stars such as Wilander, Borg, Edberg. The last one we had was Robin Soderling (who retired in 2011). The kids need someone to look up to.”
The 40-year-old felt youngsters back in his country were being attracted to football. “Zlatan Ibrahimovic is a big, big football star because of whom all the youngsters want to play that game,” he said.
“Another reason (for the decline) is all our best coaches are going outside Sweden now — on the ATP/ WTA Tours as also some other countries, so we’re losing them,” he added.
But there is hope. “We have two guys — brothers Mikael and Elias Ymer — and a girl in Rebecca Peterson who are good. In five or six years’ time hopefully we will have one or two guys in the top 50,” Johansson said, prompting a quip from Martina Hingis: “There were seven from Sweden in top 25 once upon a time.” Sweden surely needs to take stock at home, well in tune with its capital — Stockholm.
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