Martina Hingis reaches 2 doubles finals at Wimbledon
Jul 10, 2015, 12:12 PM
Martina Hingis from Switzerland, right, and Sania Mirza from India talk between points during their doubles match against Casey Dellacqua from Australia and Yaroslava Shvedova from Kazakhstan at the All England Lawn Tennis Championships in Wimbledon, London, Wednesday July 8, 2015. (AP Photo/Tim Ireland)
(AP Photo/Tim Ireland)
LONDON (AP) — Martina Hingis is back in a final at Wimbledon for the first time since 1998 — in women’s doubles and mixed doubles.
Hingis, a member of the International Tennis Hall of Fame, and doubles partner Sania Mirza are seeded No. 1 and won their semifinal against the fifth-seeded American pair of Raquel Kops-Jones and Abigail Spears 6-1, 6-2 on Friday.
The 34-year-old Hingis and Mirza, the first woman from India to be ranked No. 1 in singles or doubles, will face the second-seeded Russian duo of Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina in the final.
Makarova and Vesnina, who won last year’s U.S. Open, beat Timea Babos and Kristina Mladenovic 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 in the other semifinal.
Later Friday, Hingis also reached the mixed doubles final. She and Leander Paes of India beat Mike Bryan and Bethanie Mattek-Sands of the United States 6-3, 6-4 and will face Babos and Alexander Peya of Austria.
Seventeen years ago, Hingis won the women’s doubles trophy at Wimbledon with Jana Novotna. Hingis won all four majors in doubles that season, teaming with Mirjana Lucic-Baroni at the Australian Open, and Novotna at the others. She has never won the mixed doubles title at Wimbledon.
Hingis, who won five Grand Slam singles titles in the 1990s, initially quit tennis in 2002 because of foot and leg injuries, then rejoined the circuit full time in 2006. She announced her retirement again in 2007, when she was given a two-year suspension for testing positive for cocaine at Wimbledon. At the time, she denied taking the drug but did not appeal the ruling.
The Swiss star returned to tennis in recent years as a coach and now is back playing, perhaps with an eye toward competing at next year’s Rio Olympics.
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