Martina Hingis Asked by Roger Federer to Play Mixed Doubles at 2012 Olympics in London
by Ben Rothenberg on Jul 13, 2011 3:51 PM EDT in Coverage
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WASHINGTON--Though she was twice forced out of the sport, Switzerland's Martina Hingis is back in tennis for good.
The five-time Grand Slam singles champion and Hingis is playing more (and better) than she has in years, and seems to enjoy tennis more than she has at any point in her life.
" It gave me everything I have today," Hingis said after her World Team Tennis match Tuesday.
"I'm very grateful that tennis exists, really."
Hingis has shown her appreciation for the game by filling her 2011 calendar with play. She has participated in Legends' events at the French Open and Wimbledon, World Team Tennis, and several other exhibitions.
But World Team Tennis and Legends' events would pale in comparison to the step back into the sport's biggest stage that Hingis could take in 2012.
* * *
In 2009, mixed doubles was added as a fifth tennis event at the 2012 Olympic Games in London, the tennis portion of which will be held at the All-England Club in Wimbledon).
Shortly after the announcement, more than two years before the competition, Serena Williams and Andy Roddick announced their partnership. Roddick said last summer that "24 seconds after they announced that they were going to have mixed doubles in the Olympics, I was flooding Serena's telephone."
"Calls, missed calls, text messages--borderline stalking. And I annoyed her into submission."
While being annoying at the earliest possible moment paid dividends for Roddick in finding an opposite gender compatriot to play with, other players have gone about finding partners differently, with few confirmed partnerships announced.
But that doesn't mean there hasn't been a frenzy of action behind the scenes.
* * *
Though he has accomplished so much else in his career (namely a record sixteen Grand Slam singles titles), there can't be many players more grateful for Olympic doubles than Switzerland's Roger Federer.
Federer entered the 2008 Beijing Olympics at one of the lower points of his career. He had just lost to Rafael Nadal in the epic final of Wimbledon 2008, and had suffered a crushing defeat to him in the 2008 French Open final just before that. He had lost the No. 1 singles ranking for the first time since early 2004.
Having suffered early exits in singles at both Athens 2004 (to Tomas Berdych) and then at Beijing 2008 (to James Blake), it seemed as though Federer might never find success at the Olympics.
But partnering with countryman Stanislas Wawrinka in the oft overlooked men's doubles competition, Federer won gold for Switzerland and made it atop the Olympic podium--with a little help from his friend. Federer was decidedly ecstatic, though he showed it in a decidedly unconventional way.
The gold medal in doubles (or perhaps just the celebration) brought Federer's game back to life. He won the following US Open, and three of the next five grand slams (including his first French Open). If it hadn't been for Olympic doubles, the second act of Federer's career might never have happened.
* * *
Hopefully after those first three sections (and more obviously, by the headline) you can see where this story is headed.
A bit obsessed with mixed doubles (and impressed with her current form), I asked Martina Hingis after the match Wednesday if she would consider coming back to the highest level of the game to compete for Switzerland at the 2012 London Olympics in mixed doubles with Roger Federer. And since I framed (and considered) it a hypothetical, I was surprised by her answer.
TDF: You're playing so well now, and there aren't really any other Swiss women near the top of the game at the moment...
Martina Hingis: (nervous laughter [she seems to anticipate just as well off the court as she does on it])
TDF: I was wondering--they're having mixed doubles at the Olympics next year, and someone who has had success in doubles in the Olympics is your countryman, Roger Federer...
Martina Hingis: (more nervous laughter)
TDF: Would you play in the Olympics with him, if he asked?
Martina Hingis: You're tricky, right? (Laughs) Well...he kind of was like, through the angles, he already, like, you know tried, a little bit? But I don't know...
TDF: He already tried to ask you?
Martina Hingis: Well...I don't know? Not him, personally, but...I mean, they asked that question...We're still a long way away, so...
TDF: But you're not saying no, you're open to it?
Martina Hingis: I don't know, I don't know...I'm not sure, because you have to really commit. And I feel great right now, but, you know, it's still a long way to go, it's another year.
TDF: So just to be clear, someone from his team did ask you?
Martina Hingis: Yeah, they did. But who knows...I mean, I would have to play some doubles before, or some mixed....who knows?
Whoa.
* * *
A Martina Hingis-Roger Federer pairing would be the story in tennis going into the Olympics.
Not only would it be a fascinating trans-era partnership, it would also almost certainly be an incredibly successful one. Hingis and Federer are widely considered to be two of the greatest tactical minds of the Open Era, both with incredible creativity and touch. Hingis and Federer have each won over a dozen grand slam titles, with Hingis having won five in singles, nine in women's doubles, and one in mixed, and all 16 of Federer's coming in singles.
The success of a Hingis-Federer pairing isn't entirely conjecture, either. In January of 2001, before Federer had won a single title at the ATP level, Hingis and Federer paired to win the Hopman Cup for Switzerland.
Their mixed doubles play was especially impressive, losing only 10 games in six sets of live rubber action before conceding a dead rubber in the final to the American team of Monica Seles and Jan-Michael Gambill.
* * *
Coming from a country that had never produced any great champions before they came along, Hingis and Federer have often been compared to one another. With both being Swiss finesse players, the connections are easy, and more importantly, fair.
But while questions about other players often irritate tennis players, both Hingis and Federer have always seem greatly pleased be asked about the other.
Aside from the obvious on-court reasons for them to play together, it's clear that Hingis and Federer also share a great deal of respect and admiration for one another (if not a closeness that allowed for Roger to ask Martina about London directly).
"At the time, mixing with her, playing in doubles with her, was a privilege for me," Federer said of Hingis in 2008.
"Roger is the most talented and the most complete player on the tour," Hingis said of Federer in 2004.
* * *
The partnership is far from a done deal, clearly. But from her uncharacteristic nervousness and evasiveness when the topic was broached, it's clear that Hingis is taking Federer's offer very, very seriously.
I just hope she has the self-belief to give it a shot.
