Wednesday, March 05, 2008

Martina Hingis returns to tennis in an exhibition!!


Nearly 4 months after retiring and receiving a 2 year tennis ban (testing positive for cocaine, which I still think is total BS). Martina Hingis will be back on the court participating in a Liverpool Exhibition Tournament.

She will play three exhibition matches from June 13-15 during the unofficial Liverpool International, which features ATP, WTA players and a Legends division two weeks before Wimbledon.

This bit of news was like a breath of fresh air compared to all the negative articles floating around in regards to Hingis these days. And to be completely honest something I never thought I would see.

But it's comforting to know that I'm not alone in believing she's innocent and it is also good to know that despite a lot of people who have given up on her (like her sponsors for instance). There are still some people out there willing to completely back her up.

And I have to give the organizer Anders Borg a lot of credit, defending Hingis (especially to the hypocrites at ITF) could not have been easy. But I'm certainly glad he did it.

“Of course, she has never taken drugs. Martina took more than 200 drug tests throughout her career and never failed one. To claim that she took drugs actually during the Wimbledon Championship, and not a performance-enhancing drug but a recreational one, is just absurd.

“I remain confident that she is a splendid role model for the 4,000 youngsters we invite to the tournament and I’m thrilled she is coming.”

I thought this was particularly well put, and again something I've been saying since the very start.

If only more organizers came out and said the same thing (in the very beginning of this whole fiasco) maybe she wouldn't have received a ban in the first place or at the very least received a shorter one (I think 2 years was over kill).

It will be nice watching Hingis play again (well assuming the tourney is televised, which I highly doubt), the sport is just not the same without her. I'm looking forward to some nice action shots from the event.

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