adminLONDON. — Former world women’s tennis number one player Martina Hingis lost in the first round of women’s doubles on Wednesday in her return to Wimbledon, seven years after a positive test for cocaine during the tournament led to one of her temporary retirements.
The 33-year-old Hingis, a five-time Grand Slam singles champion, received a wild-card invitation for women’s doubles from the All England Club.
She and Vera Zvonareva lost to fourth-seeded Cara Black of Zimbabwe and India’s Sania Mirza 6-2, 6-4.
Hingis won doubles titles at Wimbledon in 1996 (with Helena Sukova) and 1998 (Jana Novatna), and the singles championship in 1997.
Hingis last played singles at Wimbledon in 2007, when she lost in the third round.
She was then suspended for two years for failing a drug test. Hingis denied taking the drug but did not appeal, instead retiring.
Meanwhile, The mixed doubles draw for the 2014 Wimbledon Championships was released yesterday.
Seeded sixth, Mirza and Horia Tecau, the Australian Open finalists this year, feature in the first quarter.
They have a bye in the first round and could face top seeds Mike Bryan and Katarina Srebotnik in the quarter-finals. This duo also managed to make it to the quarter-finals last year before losing to the eventual winners.
The third quarter is led by India’s Leander Paes and Black of Zimbabwe as the fourth seeds. The two are coming together after a long time. They were a very successful mixed doubles pair with five finals and three titles from 2008 to 2010.
Their potential quarter-final opponents are the seventh seeded duo of Rohan Bopanna and Andrea Hlavackova. Bopanna has made it to the quarters the last two years with Zheng Jie of China.
A notable omission will be Mahesh Bhupathi. The Indian legend had earlier stated that he would retire after playing Wimbledon, but he did not feature in the men’s doubles draw and now, he has not made it to the mixed doubles draw either.
The top seeds in the draw are Mike Bryan and Katarina Srebotnik while Bob Bryan and Kveta Peschke are seeded number two. Former world No. 1 Hingis is playing with Brazilian Bruno Soares and the pair is seeded 13th.
Meanwhile, defending champions and Australian Open champions Daniel Nestor and Kristina Mladenovic are seeded fifth. On the other hand, French Open titlists Jean-Julien Rojer and Anna-Lena Gronefeld are seeded eighth.
Another notable team is that of Martin Emmrich and Michaela Krajicek, who recently came to limelight with Emmrich’s on-court marriage proposal to Krajicek at the Rosmalen ATP/WTA event. — AFP.
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