MANCHESTER — As she calls it, “the princess treatment” fits Martina Hingis just fine. Since her induction to the International Tennis Hall of Fame this month, her place among the royalty in the sport has even more muscle than before.
“Hall of Famer! In the morning I’m like, ‘Murphy, you’ve got to get me some coffee. I’m a Hall of Famer!’ ” Hingis said, referring to Washington Kastles coach Murphy Jensen.
Before last night’s Mylan World TeamTennis match between her Kastles and the Boston Lobsters at the Manchester Athletic Club, Hingis talked about both her induction and her season.
Hingis, 32, won five Grand Slam singles titles on the WTA Tour and spent time atop the rankings as the world’s best female player, but said getting into the Hall of Fame so quickly was a surprise.
“The nomination was last year so I was like, ‘Oh, yeah, I got nominated,’ but I didn’t really think I’d get inducted already because it’s a minimum of five years (after you retire to be eligible),” Hingis said. “Usually people have to wait; they get nominated but it doesn’t necessarily mean that they get inducted right away. So I thought, ‘Yeah, nice,’ but I didn’t really think much of it. Then they called me in Australia during the Australian Open almost at the end of February and they said, ‘You’re in,’ and I was like, ‘Wow, cool.’ ”
And being a Hall of Famer for Hingis has been as cool as she dreamed it would be.
“It was great, amazing feeling to be a part of such a great group of people. It’s a great honor to be a part of the Hall of Fame in any sport,” she said. “At halftime, they showed the video (of the induction) in Washington. They gave me a present when we went to Dallas. It’s been even greater after the Hall of Fame, it’s like the appreciation was there. It was amazing. That felt pretty good.”
Hingis, who is in her sixth WTT season and first with the Kastles, recently announced she will come out of retirement to play doubles on the WTA Tour, but enjoys the different aspects of the WTT experience.
“It’s great. The format, it’s perfect for me, right, especially for the older players,” she said. “You feel like I still got some skills and I hope the people enjoy it to come out here and see some of the game I still got in me. I still try to prepare well and play well, and so far it’s been going well this season.
“It’s nice to be on such a great team,” she added, referencing the Kastles’ 34-match winning streak, which ended this season after setting a record for professional team winning streaks. “Getting the winning streak was big and being the No. 1 team in the league so far, it’s a great group of people: Bobby (Reynolds), obviously, he’s been on the team for four years. I secretly tried to beat them all the time (Hingis was with the New York Sportimes last year), but if you can’t beat them, join them.”
The intimate settings around the league are a far cry from Centre Court at Wimbledon, but Hingis likes that aspect, as well.
“It is more familiar,” she said. “They’re small crowds, but it’s loud and there’s music and just the whole format is great. With team tennis, the colors, the court, the music, it’s great.”
Last night, Hingis lived up to her billing as she earned a 5-2 win over Jill Craybas of the Lobsters in women’s singles and combined for a 5-0 victory in women’s doubles with Anastasia Rodionova. However, in a mixed doubles set with Frederik Nielsen, Eric Butorac and Katalin Marosi rallied the Lobsters with a 5-2 win to force overtime. Hingis and Nielsen, though, pulled together a win in the ensuing super-tiebreaker to preserve a 19-18 overtime victory.
In other words, Hingis did quite enough for Jensen to fetch her another coffee in the morning.
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http://bostonherald.com/sports/other/tennis/2013/07/martina_hingis_enjoys_status_since_tennis_induction#sthash.nJxhIlbC.dpuf
http://bostonherald.com/sports/other/tennis/2013/07/martina_hingis_enjoys_status_since_tennis_induction#sthash.nJxhIlbC.dpuf
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