Martina Higgins

Martina Hingis (born September 30, 1980 in Košice, Czechoslovakia, now Slovakia) is a former World No. 1 ranked woman tennis player from Switzerland. She has won five Grand Slam singles titles (three Australian Open, one Wimbledon, and one US Open).

She has also won nine Grand Slam women's doubles titles, and in 1998 captured all four Grand Slam women's doubles crowns. She set a series of "youngest-ever" records, before ankle-ligament injuries and the necessary surgery in both of her ankles forced her to withdraw from pro tennis at the relatively young age of 22. After several surgeries and long recuperarions, on November 29, 2005, at the age of 25, Hingis announced that she would return to the WTA tour, and made her professional comeback on January 2, 2006 at a low-key tournament in Gold Coast, Australia.

Martina's comeback progressed into the 2006 Australian Open, where she won several singles matches to advance to the quarter final, and with Mahesh Bhupathi won her first-ever Grand Slam Mixed Doubles Title.
Hingis made her Grand Slam comeback debut at the 2006 Australian Open, advancing to the quarterfinals with a slew of straight set victories over Vera Zvonareva, Emma Laine, Iveta Benešová and Samantha Stosur. She was beaten by then no. 2 ranked Kim Clijsters in a tough three-setter. However, Hingis won the mixed doubles finals with teammate Mahesh Bhupathi of India. This was her first career Grand Slam mixed doubles title, and fifteenth overall (5 singles, 9 doubles).

At the Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo, Hingis continued her successful comeback by reaching the final, which included a victory over Top Seed Maria Sharapova in straight sets before falling to second seeded Elena Dementieva. The run to the final lifted her back to Top 50 at No 48 as of February 6, 2006 and she achieved a high (to date) of No 32 as of March 6, 2006.