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Martina Hingis: So what does 2003 hold ? Part 1
The news was upsetting, but not unexpected: “Hingis withdraws from Australian Open”. So what does 2003 hold in store for Martina Hingis? To try and answer what is in the future, we need to go back into the past. Many believe that Martina Hingis’ left ankle injury came to ahead in Hamburg 2002, some subscribe to a different school of thought and I am one of them. When Martina Hingis injured her right ankle at Filderstadt in 2001, it required surgery and ended the season early for her. Her return at the Adidas international in Sydney in 2002 was one of winning triumphant, but even as she held the winners trophy aloft, the seeds for an injury ridden 2002 were already being sown. In articles released through the early parts of 2002 (Sports Illustrated immediately jumps to mind) there are hints that Martina is and had been over-compensating for her right ankle, in other words , she had been putting extra weight on her left ankle. Simple lessons in Anatomy tell us that the body is designed to distribute weight on an even basis, when this doesn’t happen; stress is applied to the joints, tendons, ligaments, muscles of the area carrying the extra pressure. The inevitable happened, the left ankle broke down and before she could say “There goes the clay court season”, she was being operated on once again, this time the injury was more severe and more complex. The rest is, as they say, history. The French and Wimbledon slid by and most were not expecting a return in 2002 at all. Martina probably wishes she hadn’t. A return at Montreal was ended at the Quarter-finals, But talk of tiredness had began before that stage, A 6-0 3rd set defeat to Myskina at New Haven, a match she had completely in her control, set alarm bells ringing. Followed up by a 4th round straight set loss to Monica Seles at the US Open, a player she had beaten on all 3 occasions they had met in 2002, including a 6-3 6-2 drubbing at Indian Wells spoke volumes for where she was physically and mentally. A first round loss at the Kremlin cup was a shocker, but it most likely was not put into proper context because of the number of Top players who lost so early. A 2nd round loss at Filderstadt was the final straw. That was it, she had enough physically and mentally. Unable to produce the tennis that she, and we, knows she can was just too much and she ended her season then and there. She had comeback too early. She was still very restricted in her movement and had become more frustrated as time went on. Mentally she had done the right thing at last. Physically she should of done it long before. In my next Article, we will have a look at the “Now” and the rest of 2003 for Martina Hingis.
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By
Brandon Carr