Thursday, November 1
Last updated at 12:40 am EDT
INTERNATIONAL PRESS
Wires
Hingis statement announcing retirement - Release
"Throughout my career, I have always been open and honest with you. I have been accused by an outsource testing company of taking cocaine during the Championships at Wimbledon. I find this accusation so horrendous, so monstrous, that I have decided to confront it head-on by talking to the press."My weapon on the tennis court is and always was one single thing: the game, the ingenuity on court. And for this style of tennis, there is only one performance enhancer - the love of the game.
"They say that cocaine increases self-confidence and creates a type of euphoria. I don't know. I only know that if I were to try to hit the ball while in any state of euphoria, it simply wouldn't work.
"I would think that it would be impossible for anyone to maintain the coordination required to play top class tennis while under the influence of drugs.
"And I know one other thing - I would personally be terrified of taking drugs.
"When I was informed that the A Test I took following my defeat at Wimbledon apparently came back positive for a cocaine metabolite, I was shocked and appalled.
"Acting upon the advice of my family and my management, I immediately took the hair test which can prove whether or not someone has taken cocaine.
"This test of course produced a negative result, the same negative result as all the countless doping tests that I have taken over the last 12 years.
"However, the B Test from Wimbledon once again produced the opposite result - positive for a metabolite that apparently stays in the system for some time following cocaine use.
"I immediately retained an attorney. Anybody who even attempts to take on this doping machinery alone has no chance.
"The attorney and his experts discovered various inconsistencies with the urine sample that was taken during Wimbledon. He is also convinced that the doping officials mishandled the process and would not be able to prove that the urine that was tested for cocaine actually came from me.
"However, this attorney and others have also pointed out to me that a case like this one can sometimes take years to resolve, especially if both sides repeatedly appeal the case and take it to the next level.
"And this is the reason for my announcement. I have no desire to spend the next several years of my life reduced to fighting against the doping officials.
"I am frustrated and angry. I believe that I am absolutely, one hundred percent innocent. The fact is that it is more and more difficult for me, physically, to keep playing at the top of the game.
"And frankly, accusations such as these don't exactly provide me with motivation to even make another attempt to do so. I attempted a comeback after a three-year break and succeeded in winning three tournaments, bringing my ranking to 6 in the world.
"But in the meantime, I'm now 27 years old, and realistically too old to play top class tennis.
"So now I'm standing before you, confronting the situation. Today I also informed my sponsors. And so, considering this situation, my age, and the problems I have been having with my hip, I have decided to no longer play tennis on the Tour.
"Upon advice from my attorneys, I'm afraid I am unable to answer any questions. My answers could insult someone and create even more problems for me.
"Therefore, there is only one more thing for me to do - to thank all of you for many years of goodwill, and also to assure you: I have never taken drugs."
Mario Widmer, Hingis' manager, said she learned of the first positive test result in mid-September and the second two or three weeks later....Tennis doping tests are handled by an independent agency, Sweden-based International Doping Tests & Management, Scott said.
De Villiers said that tennis players who are caught doping should be allowed back after serving their punishment."I would draw the distinction with doping," he said. "We have taken the view that also society takes, that you are allowed to make a mistake, you will serve your punishment, but come back into society. The punishment should fit the crime."
There would be no second chances for players who fix matches.
"Where it comes down to match-fixing we are categoric. There is no excuse for that," he said. "You are undermining the integrity of the sport, you are destroying a level playing field. As far as we are concerned in tennis, if they are involved in match fixing they will be thrown out."
China's top-ranked singles player Li Na and former Australian Open doubles champion Zheng Jie have recovered from injury and are on course to return to action in the New Year, according to local media....Gao said Li and Zheng's long recovery was deliberate. "It will (be) good for the health of the players and the build-up to the Olympics," Gao said.
"Of course, it's disappointing to lose to a guy two times in a couple of weeks, especially indoors, one my favourite surfaces, but we knew the qualities of David," Federer told reporters.
"I wish conditions were a bit faster because indoors is supposed to be fast," he said. "Not here, I guess."
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As it was for so many other so-called experts in tennis journalism, the "please give us a comment" calls began to come into Inside Tennis from sports writers after the announcement. One notable show wanted the to know whether I had ever seen Hingis bending down and snorting something off a mirror, another wanted Hingis' cell phone number and then someone whom I've never met e-mailed me asking whether I could call Hingis' mother for her.I did go on ESPN News, not knowing on which segment I would appear and Martina's revelations made the "Hot List at No. 3," behind Kobe Bryant trade rumors and Joe Girardi's hiring by the Yankees. Guess which number David Nalbandian's upset of Roger Federer at Paris will come in; it won't. Tennis' negatives are what non-tennis audiences are tuning into the days. Hell, I expect the breaking story out of New York that a photographer for a Japanese ad agency secretly snapped crotch shots of Maria Sharapova during a Canon ad shoot to be the top story on the Hot List by midnight tonight. Who cares if Tommy Haas survived Mikhail Youzhny, when you have sex, drugs and gambling?
...So there I was discussing Hingis on the Hot List, and what question do I get? You got it? What's wrong with the tennis, all the betting scandals, doping, etc.
>> Just for interest, the Hingis story is the most-read article overall in the Sydney Morning Herald and the third most-read article overall in the Melbourne Age and the Times. In sports sections, it's the most-read on the Globe and Mail, the second most-read in the Telegraph, the third most-emailed in the New York Times, the third most-read on Yahoo (and 20 of the 25 most viewed pictures are of Hingis), the fifth most-read on SI.com. But on Reuters' UK page - maybe the machine is broken - Nalbandian's upset of Federer was the seventh most popular overall with Hingis later taking its place. With the Hingis news, at least the ATP got a half-day off. But check this out, Andy Roddick skipped TMS Paris this week and according to the rule book, is vulnerable to a $40,000 fine.
It would be easier to believe that Hingis took a truly performance-enhancing drug than to imagine her impulsively snorting cocaine after a third-round loss at tennis' most genteel event....The statement also indicated that Hingis has had a chance to observe what happens to athletes who stand and fight -- the time and money it takes and the impossibility of completely bleaching the stain away. That, coupled with her age and the chronic hip pain that has kept her from playing regularly since last spring, prompted her to pull the plug. As with most doping cases in sports, we're faced with making sense of the seemingly illogical. (We're also left -- again -- with the question of why in hell would it take four months for a drug test to be resolved in tennis when other sports get it done in a fraction of that time.)
The outfit issued a press release leading off with this gem of a confession: "The WTA Tour has not received any official information regarding the positive doping test result referred to by Martina Hingis in her press conference today, and as a result we are not in a position to comment on the matter … "This is pretty revealing, as it suggests that Hingis aggressively decided to get out in front of the story.
Last August, some six weeks after she apparently failed a drug test at Wimbledon, Martina Hingis was quietly sitting inside a banquet room at the La Costa Resort outside San Diego reconsidering whether she might have made the wrong decision in coming back to professional play.Always the extrovert, Hingis didn't allow her thoughts to quietly sit in her head and instead questioned a reporter: "Should I, shouldn't I, do I like it enough, am I going to like it next week, is it still worth it? Maybe this week, maybe not next week. Sometimes I have very fast thoughts. When I feel better I say I can continue for another five years, but then when I am not, I say, 'Do I really have to do this to myself?"
...Interestingly, the 1997 champion entered Wimbledon without having played for five weeks due to a back injury, and there she put on one of her most disappointing performances ever in a 6-4, 6-2 third round defeat against American journeywoman Laura Granville.
"I shouldn't have played," the slow-footed Hingis later said, looking nothing like a player who was inhaling any type of stimulant.
BRITISH PRESS
What is certain is that Hingis’s revelations surprised the entire sport. The announcement that she was to stage a press conference was met with predictions that injury and fitness issues had forced her into permanent retirement. She did say that “I’m now 27 years old and realistically too old to play top-class tennis”, but it seems that no one knew about the doping issue.The Women’s Tennis Association and senior administrators in the International Tennis Federation said that they had no idea that Hingis had a positive doping case to answer.
Hitherto, the Bercy crowd, memorably accused of possessing less manners than “animals in a zoo” by Boris Becker a decade ago, have been respectful in their appreciation of Murray’s talents. Santoro went on to court wearing heavy strapping on his leg in an attempt to contain a tear in his calf muscle and, after a few initial clever slices, never really offered a threat. Now, with Murray intent on ruining the qualification chances of one of their own, the spectators are sure to be a little more hostile....Tomas Berdych, of the Czech Republic, was also eliminated as he lost 6-4, 6-2 to the already-qualified David Ferrer, from Spain, while Nikolay Davydenko once again courted controversy in his 6-2, 6-2 defeat by Marcos Baghdatis, of Cyprus... The Russian, under investigation by the ATP after dubious betting patterns at August’s event in Poland and fined for not trying hard enough last week, was told by Cédric Mourier, the umpire, to “try your best” after the official questioned why he was serving so many double faults.
It would have been nice if she could have won more than her 43 singles championships, but when you retire, the game moves on and you lose that habit of going into those places that cause pain. But it was always a pleasure to catch a Hingis match: to see that incomparable tennis mind operating in all its grace and ruthlessness. Shame about the drugs test result: nasty way to end it all. But as I say, she was never innocent.
Two very different Wimbledons. Rewind a decade, and Martina Hingis was celebrated as the Little Swiss Miss of tennis, with the 16-year-old becoming the youngest women's Wimbledon champion of the professional era... Then there was this year's Championships, where she tested positive for something a little stronger than Robinsons Barley Water.
Yesterday's controversy flared up in the second set of Davydenko's 6-2, 6-2 defeat by the Greek Cypriot. Davydenko, having hit three double faults in the opening set, served three in the first game of the second set and then three in a row in his next service game to go 3-0 down. It was during the next changeover that Davydenko, the defending champion, had his extraordinary exchange with the umpire, Frenchman Cedric Mourier.At one point in the conversation, a smiling Mourier told Davydenko that he should "serve like me – if you serve like me, you put it in the box, that's it".
Davydenko then suggested that it was a matter for a tournament supervisor and not for the umpire. Davydenko asked Mourier how many double faults he had hit, to which the official replied: "I don't know. I can tell you at the end of the match but too many, anyway." Davydenko then asked what he should do, and Mourier suggested: "Try your best, Nikolay."
The Russian, who complained of an elbow injury after the match, revealed that he had been expecting an official warning from Mourier. "I just tell the referee [the umpire], he just ask me what's happening," Davydenko said. "I say, 'I don't know'. I cannot explain why it's happening. I'm already thinking he give me warning." Davydenko also admitted that his mind went back to what had happened against Cilic.
Hingis seldom did anything quietly and the worldwide furore which greeted yesterday's statement that she had tested positive for cocaine during this year's Wimbledon was testament to her celebrity.
Martina Hingis was always one of the fiercest competitors in tennis and last night the former Wimbledon champion and world No 1 was preparing for the biggest fight of her professional life.
"I'm not that tense here," Murray said. "There's a bit of nerves before you go out on to the court, but it's not like I'm feeling butterflies when I'm serving for a set or serving for the match. I'm not getting nervous towards the end of matches. Once I've got into my rhythm, I feel pretty good."The Scot said he had gone to bed on Wednesday night while following the match between James Blake, who was at the time one of his rivals for Shanghai, and Nicolas Mahut on his computer. "I went to sleep after the first set thinking there's a chance that maybe Blake was out and that was going to be good," Murray said. "But I woke up in the morning and the first thing I did was check on the internet."
The bizarre exchange with Cedric Mourier, the umpire, occurred during the changeover at 3-0 in the second set. "You serve like me," Mourier told Davydenko, whose English is poor. "If you serve like me, you put it in the box. That's it." The conversation continued. Davydenko: "Call supervisor. Ask him about it."Umpire: "That's the coach you should ask."
Davydenko: "I ask him. I want to kill him... Normally I cannot give up for match for good reason just because I cannot serve. How many double-faults?"
Umpire: "I don't know. I can tell you at the end of the match but too many."
Davydenko: "What can I do?"
Umpire: "Try your best."
ATP supervisors later examined tapes of the match, but said that no action would be taken. Davydenko blamed a continuing elbow problem. He said it did not cause him pain and affected only his serve.
AMERICAN PRESS
Her period of dominance was brilliant yet brief. She won all five of her Grand Slam singles titles in a two-year span between January 1997 and January 1999, and she served as a transitional figure between the eras of Steffi Graf and of Venus and Serena Williams... Hingis has yet to win another major singles title. She left the game in early 2003 because of foot problems and slumping results. Now, it appears that she has left the game for good. “I believe her when she says she’s retiring permanently,” said Larry Scott, the chairman and chief executive of the WTA. Regarding the drug case, Scott emphasized that he wanted to “presume Martina’s innocence until she goes through a process.” This is the first year that professional tennis has a unified antidoping program, which is being administered by the International Tennis Federation. The policy prohibits the federation from confirming or denying the existence of a doping case until an official ruling has been made.WTA Tour chief executive Larry Scott found out a few weeks ago when Hingis asked her agent at Octagon to bring him into the loop after the B sample came back positive. "We're not officially notified until there is a finding," he said in a phone interview from Florida on Thursday night. "There's no doping offense yet. . . . All indications are that she's planning on fighting it aggressively and trying to clear her name."
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