Martina Hingis was world No. 1 in women's tennis for more than three years during her career and has been the Swiss No. 1 for even longer. Only when she took a break from the game for a few years did Patty Schnyder reign supreme. 

Hingis, now serving a two-year ban because of doping irregularities, is unlikely to make another comeback after announicng her retirement and she has certainly lost ground on the younger, more powerful players. Switzerland will also have a new star by then in Timea Bacsinszky.

Timea, playing tennis since she was three years of age, made her big breakthrough in 2006 in her home tournament in Zurich. She was awarded a wild card into the qualifying draw of the tournament and made the best out of it. She flew through qualifying of the WTA tier 1 event with sensational victories over former French Open champion Anastasia Myskina, Top 20 player Francesca Schiavone and doubles No. 1 Lisa Raymond.

'In the next few years she [Bacsinzky] should develop into a regular Top 20 player'


At only 17 the new Swiss Miss reached the quarter-finals where she came up against Maria Sharapova. Undaunted by this match-up Timea produced a good display and was in no way thrashed, like most of Maria's opponents, losing respectably 6-4 6-3.

This was only the start. Last year was a quiet year for Bacsinszky but she continued to improve her ranking and qualified for WTA tournaments. She managed to reach the second round in the French Open after coming through qualifying and had wins in 2007 over solid WTA players Elena Vesnina, Marie Camerin, Arvine Rezai and Camille Pin.

Now 18, the girl from Lausanne is having a great 2008 season so far, improving her ranking from a modest 122 to a more respectable 59 in less than three  months. Her WTA tour race ranking based on 2008 alone is even more impressiv. She's ranked 24.

She qualified in Melbourne for the Australin Open and lost in the second round but only in three sets to Indian ace Sania Mirza.

Bacsinszky's best tournament run of her career was in February. Having won three matches in qualifying at an event in Antwerp, Timea went on to defeat,  amogst others, world No. 8 Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia and only lost in the semi-finals to world No. 1 Justine Henin. In her home tournament, Henin was spurred on by the crowd to win the match in three sets and was full of admiration for her younger opponent.

Bacsinszky is not yet in the same league as her compatriot Martina Hingis. However in the next few years she should develop into a regular Top 20 player at  least, and the girl who idolises Moinca Seles certainly has a big future in the game, something Martina now hasn't got. Perhaps its time for out with the old and in with the new.