Tennis Great Martina Hingis Retires After Tests Show She Used Cocaine

One of the greatest female tennis players is quitting the game, but it’s not because of age or injury. Five time Grand Slam champion Martina Hingis has announced her retirement after allegations surfaced that she used cocaine.

The 27-year-old Swiss star claims a test carried out during her competition at Wimbledon came back positive for the powder. But she adamantly denies ever using the substance and can’t account for the result. “I find this accusation so horrendous, so monstrous that I’ve decided to confront it head on by talking to the press,” she explains. “I am frustrated and angry. I believe that I am absolutely 100 per cent innocent.”

Hingis lost her Wimbledon match to Laura Granville in the third round at the prestigious British tournament. She was out of the game for four years due to injuries but returned triumphant in 2005, after winning three straight Australian Open titles from 1997-99, and Wimbledon and the U.S. Open championships in 1997.

But she insists if she was on drugs, everyone would know it. “They say that cocaine increases self-confidence and creates a type of euphoria,” she proclaims in a statement. “I don’t know. I only know that if I were to try to hit the ball while in any state of euphoria, it simply wouldn’t work.

“I would think that it would be impossible for anyone to maintain the coordination required to play top class tennis while under the influence of drugs. And I know one other thing – I would personally be terrified of taking drugs.”

She says further tests she arranged privately after the allegations surfaced showed no trace of the drug in her system. It was a so-called “B” backup urine sample where its presence was originally detected and her attorney believes there were problems with the original sample. “He is also convinced that the doping officials mishandled the process and would not be able to prove that the urine that was tested for cocaine actually came from me,” she concludes.

So why would she retire, potentially looking guilty? She explains that the case would take her so long to fight, her career would likely be over anyway. So rather than waste that precious time, she’s leaving the game for good. “I have no desire to spend the next several years of my life reduced to fighting against the doping officials,” she answers. “The fact is that it is more and more difficult for me, physically, to keep playing at the top of the game.

“And frankly, accusations such as these don’t exactly provide me with motivation to even make another attempt to do so.”