Martina Hingis sets a new trend
There have been good many singles Tennis players who have also dominated the doubles at the same time in the world ranking. They are Australia’s John Newcombe, Tony Roach, Fred Stolle and Roy Emerson among men; Margret Court and Leslie Turner among women. Americans who did the same are John McEnroe, Arthur Ash, Chuck McKinley, Dennis Ralston and among women, Billie Jean King and the two Williams sisters Serena and Venus. Mighty Martina Navratilova with her highly developed net game was very prominent and dominated doubles.
This year Martina Hingis of Switzerland achieved something very unique. She was the world’s number one in singles in her career which stretched from 1994 to 2013 and then retired. She came back predominantly as a doubles player and reached the number one position in doubles too this year. No player in the history of the game has achieved this distinction of returning to the game successfully into doubles. I am sure this will be a path many fading singles champions would take to in the future.
Hingis’s Tennis
Martina was born in former Czechoslovakia in a town called Roznov. Her mother was in the top ten and father was in the top twenty ranking in the former Czechoslovakia. It is evident that it was her mother’s influence and determination that made Martina a Tennis player. Mother and daughter settled down in Switzerland in 1987. Stayed on with Tennis and at the age of 14, Martina started her professional career and in the same year she rose to 87th rank. Eventually Martina won five Grand Slam singles titles; ten Grand Slam doubles titles and numerous others. She held the position of number one of the world for 209 weeks. She had to retire at the age of 22 the first time with ligament injuries and returned and reached the number six position at the age of 26 and retired again from singles the same year.
In the last two years, Martina has played doubles with Germany’s Sabine Lisicki and Italy’s Flavia Pannetta and mixed doubles with Leander Paes and others successfully. This year she won the doubles crown in Wimbledon partnering India’s Sanya Mirza and the mixed doubles with Leander Paes, both being Indian aces. All these have taken Martina to be one of the two best women’s doubles players in the world. The support Martina and Sanya give each other is exactly what they need to win matches in doubles. Mirza also played very successful doubles and mixed doubles with others. With Martina, the combination is a dream partnership and they are currently ranked number one in the world. Ideal bio mechanics
Often in Tennis Martina’s stroke making was considered to have the best use of Bio-Mechanics. It is suspected that her excessive training hours and too many events could have been the cause of injury at an early age. This is something many players and professional bodies are paying attention to now to avoid permanent forced injuries. Her Bio-Mechanical control not only enhanced her serve and ground strokes but also her volley to play the perfect all court game. This is what gave Martina the confidence to play singles and it is now supporting her in doubles. Net game training always improves the overall rhythm and reaction of a player. [Sri Lanka’s late Bernard Pinto always warmed up with the volley and advised us to do so to enhance the reaction before playing sets].
Lesson and Guarantee against player loss
The best prospect for any player to last on the court comes from the all-court-game. This decision has to come early and it is more important to have this ability than to win age group titles with limited skills. Often age group successes are due to biological advantage than skills.
The road shown by Martina Hingis is not only for the elite world and national players. I believe it is a good path for many Tennis associations like ours which suffer from a ‘Mass Exodus’ from Tennis at around 14 years of age. Sri-Lanka’s junior national’s is on at the moment while 14 and under age groups draws are over flowing, demanding qualifying rounds, under 18 has barely enough players to fill a 32 draw in boys singles and a pitiful 16 entries in girls singles. Where are the players who played 14 and under groups a few years back? They are under-18 now! Hingis’s road could have an answer to this – that is to be focusing on doubles equally well in development to avoid going out the game at 14.
Doubles does not need the intensity of singles training. The work load for singles at the moment, even nationally, could be described as ‘hard labour without fun all alone under the scorching tropical sun’. This is certainly not every body’s cup of tea. Doubles needs only a fraction of it and it is also fun and does not disturb the academic pursuits very much and helps to develop all court skills.
Sri Lanka is too narrowly stream-lined in development focusing only on singles without any lateral avenues against player’s failure and the risk of player-loss at national level. Canadian Pospisil who is in the top end of the men’s world ranking now, made his way up focusing on doubles to evolve as a singles player. Doubles being an all court game helps to become a good singles player too. Pospisil uses the all-court-game of doubles in singles very effectively. In fact the first time I saw him, I did not know who he was. So impressed was I with his all-court-game especially at net, I took some interest to follow his career.
Martina’s Legacy
On the whole, a prominent sports career is very short. Being short sportsmen face loss of popularity and income very soon. That is a difficult pill to swallow. Many good players use the spin-off from their popularity to venture into businesses outside their sphere of expertise and fail badly. In the case of Hingis, she has been smart and not fallen into this trap by returning to what she was good at; that is to play good Tennis. A player is good on the court not elsewhere and improving and staying in sports is the best guarantee for their post singles career life. Martina’s example of venturing only into doubles is a good lead for many in the future.
Martina’s career is still alive and strong. Even with an unfinished career she is named as one of the 30 legends of Tennis. Her name is in the Hall of fame and her image is immortalized at Madam Tassaud’s in London.
In doubles her time is not yet over and I am sure she will certainly leave a legacy to all sportsperson. Her life has not been rosy from her childhood. What is to be appreciated in this lady is that she was able to turn every adversity, which at times was extreme and beyond her control, into opportunity and come out strong. Very strong indeed!
-George Paldano, former international player; Accredited Coach of Germany, National coach, Davis Cup and Federation Cup Coach; ITF and USPTR; –gptennis.ceylon@gmail.com-