ORGANISER of the Liverpool International, Anders Borg, watched Francesca Schiavone win the French Open last weekend – and immediately urged Martina Hingis to fill in the only blank in her own Grand Slam record.
Hingis, winner of every Grand Slam crown except Paris, is returning to Merseyside next week for her second year at the Liverpool International. She will also play the Wimbledon Senior Doubles this summer alongside Anna Kournikova.
But Borg believes Hingis still has the game to shake up the WTA rankings once again.
“She’s still only 29 and every time I talk to her I say to her ‘Make a real comeback! Do it again!’
“If she did come back properly I’m convinced she could get into the top 10 and get rid of all the talk about this and that.
“You saw at the French Open a 29-year old Italian suddenly playing the best tennis of her life and Martina can do the same.
“We’ll see what we can do with her when she’s here!”
By ‘this and that’ Borg was delicately referring to the positive test for cocaine which hastened Hingis’ retirement in 2007.
She denied using the drug and after serving a two-year ban has refused to return to the Grand Slam circuit.
But she did hint earlier this year that the idea hadn’t totally been extinguished.
“There’s a spark. If it was played in the backyard,” Hingis said from her home in Switzerland, “then I’d probably think about it twice.”
The five time Major singles titlist in Australia, USA and Wimbledon, but famously not Paris, played World Team Tennis in 2005 – in preparation for her first return to tour.
Hingis originally burst onto the tennis scene by becoming the youngest woman ever to win a Wimbledon title.
And Borg believes he might highlight another precocious talent next week in 15-year-old Luke Bambridge from Nottingham.
The Liverpool International gave an early platform for stars like Novak Djokovic – a relative unknown at the time before becoming world number three, and Caroline Wozniacki – a Liverpool International winner and now world number two.
It seems everyone is on board the comeback train when it comes to Martina Hingis, more so since Francesca Schiavone won the French.
I can't say I disagree I think she could do it, but at this point I'm not too sure of her drive and motivation.
I would say let's wait and see after her matches in World Team Tennis in July.
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