All over now for Hingis at age 22

TENNIS/News: Former world number one Martina Hingis has all but announced her retirement from tennis.

The 22-year-old Swiss star said yesterday she had no intention of returning to the women's circuit she dominated from 1997 to 2000, when she won five Grand Slam singles crowns and eight doubles titles.

"I have been in the game too long not to know what it takes to get to the top and I'm no longer capable of it," she said.

"When you have been number one for four years you cannot be satisfied with anything less. And when you can't compete with the best . . . no it's not possible to envisage a comeback.

"There's no point in looking back. I've got a great life ahead of me."

Hingis is recovering from further surgery on damaged ankle ligaments. An operation last year caused her to miss the French Open and Wimbledon but she returned for the US Open, where she lost to Monica Seles in the third round.

Her last match was at Filderstadt in Germany on October 10th, where she was beaten by Russia's Elena Dementieva - after that she called a halt to her season and pulled out of the year's first Grand Slam event, the Australian Open in Melbourne.

She says there is only one player who can possibly match the Williams sisters Venus and Serena. "The only one is Kim Clijsters. She has the strength and the talent," she said.

"But Serena is the best player in the world at the moment, there's no question about it," she said when asked what she felt when Serena Williams won her fourth successive Grand Slam tournament at Melbourne last month.

Williams's father and coach, Richard, said that the game would sorely miss Hingis.

"Tennis is going to miss something totally unreal," he said. "Martina Hingis is one of the greatest champions ever to play the sport and to do the things she did at such an early age, I don't think it will ever be duplicated, syndicated or replicated in any way. The Williams family will definitely miss her," he added.

Hingis, born in Slovakia, was christened Martina by her tennis-loving mother after Martina Navratilova.

He mother brought her to Switzerland when she was eight.

She won 40 WTA tournaments, three successive Australian Opens, from 1997 to 1999, and Wimbledon and the US Open in 1997. That was the year she missed a Grand Slam when she lost to Iva Majoli in the French Open final.

She became world number one at 16 and held the ranking for 209 weeks. She has not won a major title since the Australian Open in 1999, losing the 2002 final in Melbourne in suffocating heat to Jennifer Capriati. Her last tournament win was in Tokyo in February, 2002. Her career earnings totalled €16,933,800.