Saturday, February 03, 2018

Martina Hingis appointed Switzerland Fed Cup team coach

Former World No.1 Martina Hingis, who retired from tennis in November, will join the Swiss Fed Cup team as their coach for the World Group first round tie against Czech Republic in Prague this February.

Hingis, who made 19 appearances for the Swiss national team between 1995 and 2017, will join team captain Heinz Günthardt, who has chosen Timea Bacsinszky, Belinda Bencic, Viktorija Golubic and Jil Teichmann as the four players to represent the Swiss Tennis Federation team. The Swiss Tennis Federation has also claimed for a compensation to Rebeka Masarova, who won 2016 Roland Garros junior title.

In 2015, Hingis returned to the Swiss Fed Cup team after a 17-year absence and together with team-mates Timea Bacsinszky, Belinda Bencic and Viktorija Golubic, helped to push Switzerland into the top four nations in the past two years. “We’ve built something special with the team over the past three years,” 37-year-old Hingis, who retired for the third and last time in November, was quoted by swisstennis.ch as saying. “Our relationship in the team is characterized by mutual trust and respect. We have shown how well we can function as a single entity, the success of recent years speaks for us. That’s why I’m all the more pleased that the players also expressed their confidence in my role as coach.”

Hingis already has coaching experience. Before her comeback on the double tour she had already worked as a trainer. Regarding the upcoming first round encounter with Czech Republic, the new coach said: “It will not be an easy task. The Czech women, who won the Fed Cup five times in the past seven years, are at the top with their four players who are of course the clear favorites. But our players have always done well in the role of outsiders in the past.”

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