Roger Federer rode to the defence of fellow Swiss Martina Hingis, who inspired him as a young player, dismissing suggestions she could have taken drugs.
GENEVA: World number one Roger Federer on Sunday rode to the defence of fellow Swiss Martina Hingis, who inspired him as a young player, dismissing suggestions she could have taken drugs.
Former women's number one Hingis, 27, announced her retirement on November 1 after admitting she was under investigation for a positive test for cocaine.
Her manager confirmed during the week that she will fight her positive test.
And Federer, 26, insisted that he would be backing Hingis in her fight to clear her name.
"I can't ever imagine in any way that she took drugs," Federer said in an interview with the weekly Le Matin on Sunday.
"I really hope that she can prove her innocence. I support her," he said.
Federer revealed that Hingis, one of the teenage stars of the game in the 1990s, was a player who had inspired him.
And he pointed out that it was alongside her in the Hopman Cup that he won his first title in January 2000, a year before he claimed his first ATP crown in Milan.
"I know she has said she was proud to have in some way helped me at the beginning of my career," said the 12-time Grand Slam winner who has 52 titles to his name.
"At the time, mixing with her, playing in doubles with her, was a privilege for me."
Hingis has insisted she is "100 percent innocent" and that this was backed up by a negative result on a hair test, which can show whether or not someone has taken cocaine.
The Swiss star, who has five Grand Slams to her name, first retired in 2003 due to persistent ankle injury problems, but returned to the circuit in 2006.
Meanhile, Federer said he feared that suspicions of match-fixing and betting would damage the game.
"We cannot and should not cheat in tennis. It's a sport in which there is a lot of money, it's true, and some can be tempted to cheat."
But he added: "I've friends in this sport who don't earn as much as I do but they don't cheat."
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