And if she has to win another Grand Slam title, it’ll come in Melbourne or Paris, reports Bikash Mohapatra from the Sunfeast Open.
And if she has to win another Grand Slam title, it’ll come in Melbourne or Paris
Sunfeast Open
KOLKATA: Can Martina Hingis win another Grand Slam?
“That’s a difficult question,” she said in Kolkata on Monday. “There’re so many other girls in the fray now who have the ability and desire to win but I would definitely like to.” If the Swiss Miss had some difficulty in answering the above question, she isn’t completely clueless about where she stands a chance to win another major, if and when it comes.
“It will come at the Australian Open or the French Open. The other two (Wimbledon and the US Open) are getting faster,” she admits in a candid manner. The former world No.1, who returned to the courts simply because she missed them, is happy with the manner she has played so far.
“There was a lot of support when I decided to come back, especially from Australia, where I again did well this year. Then I have reached major finals at Tokyo and Montreal, won a title at Rome. So it’s been great,” she says. There’s a tinge of regret though. And that comes from the fact that she failed to utilise her impressive form in the lead up to the US Open, where she lost in the second round. “Obviously it hurt,” she said.
Having been away from pro-tennis for three years, Martina is conscious of the changing trends and the challenges that she’ll face in the days to come. “The players now are very athletic. It was started by Martina (Navratilova), continued by Steffi (Graf) but actually popularised by the Williams sisters,” she says, adding that no one in the top 10 refuses to budge from her existing position unless it means going up.
And since Martina is in India, it is imperative that she says something about Sania. “I’ve played her only once,” she pleads before relenting. “She’s a great player with good ground strokes. But to move up she has to get her game together and hope the others are ready to make way.” And what about the person responsible for getting you here in Kolkata?
“I love playing with Mahesh (Bhupathi). I mean it was my first ever mixed doubles slam,” she says. So why hasn’t she continued with the association? “We did play at Paris but after making it to the quarters in singles it was impossible to play. I’m no longer 16 and my body needs sufficient rest,” she reasons. And is she looking forward to play Sania in the semifinals? “Let’s both get there first.”
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