Martina Hingis is partly responsible for the tennis fanatic that I have become.

It was during her dominant era around the late 90s and the new millennium is when I really became interested in tennis. I always really enjoyed watching the elegance of her game, and during her earlier years, enjoyed witnessing the teenage tantrums.

I thought it was a great loss to the tour when she first retired. I thought, and still do think that she was our last surviving link to the way tennis used to be played. She played with the mind, and executed with beautiful strokes.

'I can only see her grabbing a spot in the top 20'


When I heard that she was to return to the game, I was delighted. Like many others I honestly didn’t have high expectations of what she would achieve on her return. The game had changed in her years away.

Primarily thanks to the Venus and Serena Williams a new standard had been set to the sport, and long gone were the days of gentle, pretty ground strokes. Now you had to combine the power of mind, with the power of body. I just couldn’t envision her beating her more modern counterpart, Justine Henin.

Even though, she didn’t reach the level as she did in the first part of her career, she maintained a level that most aspiring tennis players could ever dream of, a quarter final appearance at the Australian Open, tournament wins, and toppling top players including Maria Sharapova.

After the initial shock of her successful comeback, it seemed to subside. Instead of being the best player in the world, she drifted to a top 10 player and then to a top 20. She began suffering early-round losses to players far less ranked than she was. This was a position she surely would not have been happy with.

When news came of her alleged drug taking, I was shocked. I didn’t, and still do not think it can be possible. How on earth could someone with her experience do something as ridiculous as to take cocaine in the middle of the most famous tennis tournament in the world? It just doesn’t seem logical or make sense.

Having said this, in great respect to the tennis player she was, I see a successful comeback after this as highly unlikely. If she were to return to the sport, I can only see her grabbing perhaps a spot in the top 20. I just don't envisage her troubling Venus and Serena, Maria Sharapova and Justine Henin.

As a Hingis fan, as a young girl who watched her win the Wimbledon championships at 16, I was saddened about the manner to which her career ended. I can only hope that one day the truth surrounding the bizarre circumstances to how it all fell apart will come to light.

But as far as a professional career goes, I’m afraid it just looks bleak.