How drug addiction ended Hingis career at 27
The Swiss, 41, won 25 Grand Slams – including Wimbledon – during her illustrious career.
Former pro tennis player and multiple Grand Slam winner Martina Hingis had to retire at 27 owing to cocaine allegations - while her previous husband claimed he found her in bed with another man
The Swiss, 41, won 25 Grand Slams – including Wimbledon – during her illustrious career.
But the good days were brought to an end in 2007. At 27 years old, Hingis called a press conference to announce that she was under investigation for testing positive for benzoylecgonine, which is a metabolite of cocaine.
"I have tested positive but I have never taken drugs and I feel 100% innocent," she said. "I am frustrated and angry. I find this accusation so horrendous, so monstrous, that I have decided to confront it head-on by talking to the press."
She was tested at Wimbledon and her sample contained an estimated 42 nanograms per millilitre of benzoylecgonine. The International Tennis Federation's report found it was a low amount and she did try and appeal on the basis it was contamination, rather than her using anything illegal.
However, her appeal did not win and the following year a tribunal suspended Hingis from the sport for two years. She retired from professional tennis as a result.
The former sports star also caught the headlines after her husband found her in bed with another man. French equestrian Thibault Hutin claimed she was a serial cheater and found her laying with someone else just a year after she was married.
He said: "Martina has a very personal conception of morality. She has always been like that; I think she has always been unfaithful to her boyfriends."
Of her playing days, she told ESPN: "My weapon on the tennis court is and always was one single thing: the game, the ingenuity on court. And for this style of tennis, there is only one performance enhancer - the love of the game."
