Crushed

Wow. Just wow. What a fitting news for the Halloween!

Last night, before sleeping, I have read about the press conference Martina Hingis and her team is planning out. I thought, oh well, she is going to retire after those injuries since taking the 2007 Toray Pan Pacific title.

This morning, the most unexpected news flashed before me. Martina Hingis retires after revealing a positive test for cocaine at Wimbledon. WTF? Martina Hingis and cocaine in one line seem impossible.

I have been a fan of Martina more than a decade ago and this kind of news really surprises me. She has been an Ambassador of Goodwill for couples of year already. And reading this article makes me wonder if it is true?

This was the second year of her comeback, sophomore year (sophomore slump, maybe). After winning the 2007 PPO, everything went against her, career-wise. She struggled with injuries causing her to miss the French Open but tried to force her way to enter The Championships. The Championships, the place where they said she took cocaine,

Hingis tested positive June 29, the day she was upset in straight sets by Laura Granville of the United States in the third round at Wimbledon. That was her first tournament after missing 1 1/2 months with hip and back injuries. "I just didn't want to miss Wimbledon," Hingis said at the time. "Probably at the end of the day, it wasn't, like, the smartest thing."

Reading through her transcript, she sounded crushed, helpless and unwilling to fight.

I am frustrated and angry. I believe that I am absolutely, 100 percent innocent. 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. I attempted a comeback after a three-year break and succeeded in winning three tournaments, bringing my ranking to six in the world. But in the meantime, I'm now 27 years old, and realistically too old to play top class tennis.

I must admit, I still don’t believe Hingis could do this thing. She is aware of the consequences of being a top and well-liked player and role model. It just confuses me that she looked defeated with her way of handling this accusation. She should speak up. Perhaps, she really is angry and I can’t blame her.

Early this year, Martina has been very vocal about the doping schedule conducted by this committee. If I remember it correctly, it was Maria Sharapova who first voiced out how inconvenient this doping team arranged their ‘random’ schedule that they have to respect the players’ privacy, hours of rest and practice session. Martina stressed out that time its okay to take a urine sample as long as its not 4 am. Coincidence? Hmm. Just thinking.

But some may ask, why retire? To those who don’t follow her career, she has been injured (hips) this season and has been consistently losing to unknown players, a much different scenario during her 1^st year of comeback. Can I add the effect of her break-up with Radek here? It wasn’t her best year. It is even the worst year of career, imo. And now, what a way to end that glorious career!

Martina Hingis

a fickle flower
snipped by traditional wind;
now, stones to kiss her

The timing. Yes, what a great timing though. Announcing her retirement and opening this “scandal” may add doubt to haters, fans, her fellow players as well as the sports world. Ironically, her story last year was a headliner and her story now is rippling through out the world. Tsk tsk.

In cases like this, the person involved is always the loser. In case the doping committee will clear her name, the fact that she was suspected to be a drug-user, will always haunt her and will be brought up continuously.

Whether she is innocent or not, only Martina Hingis knows.

/totomai
11/02/07