The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Hingis finding the key to real happiness

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jun 25, 2006

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Sport - Tennis

Hingis finding the key to real happiness

Nirmal Shekar

London: Who is the best woman's tennis player in the world? No, hold on, don't Google the query. Forget the Women's Tennis Association's computer-generated numbers — a rankings game that has come to resemble a bizarre version of musical chairs, welcoming all and sundry to the coveted seat atop the ladder.

To be sure, this is no trivia question; although it sounds like one. For, the women's game does seem to have a problem when it comes to anointing its queen bee. Over the last few seasons, the sport seems to have been acting out a script written by the nutty LSD-guru of the hippie generation — Dr. Timothy Leary — and worked upon by a drunk B movie scriptwriter with a penchant for inelegant twists and turns.

Gone are the glorious eras of Navratilova-Evert, Graf and Seles, days when you seldom had to look beyond one or two players at the very top to decide who was the best. Those were days when the game's special allure was the presence of a few extraordinarily gifted women who built up epic rivalries even as they authored some of the most intensely dramatic chapters in the history of the sport.

Deeper field

Today, in women's tennis, you are spoilt for choice. You can pick any one of five or six players and argue her case convincingly. Is Amelie Mauresmo really the best active player around? Or is it Justine Henin-Hardenne? What of Kim Clijsters? Hey, but don't forget Venus Williams; she is the defending Wimbledon champion.

It's pretty crowded at the top. But don't tell that to Martina Hingis, the precocious Swiss Miss who dominated the women's game towards the very end of the last millenium. For, in her new-and-improved avatar as a champion performer, Hingis seems to be in a tearing hurry as she flaunts her beefy biceps and elbows her way to join the jostling crowd at the summit.

This the very same young lady who, on being blown off her comfortable perch atop the tennis mountain by Hurricane Williams, suddenly fell in love with the mythical, carefree Everywoman.

With $18m in the bank before she turned 22, a comfortable home in Switzerland and a young woman's natural love for all the so-called "good things" in life, Hingis walked away from the game rather cheerfully four years ago.

Loads of money, plenty of free time and no pressure to perform. It seemed a perfect recipe for perfect bliss. Life ahead then looked like an unending beach party. Seen now and again at some major tennis tournament, Hingis consistently maintained that she was done with the game and let everybody know how happy she was, indulging her passion for riding and studying a Cambridge University English course in Zurich.

But then, those who know life and sport at a deeper level than would an unschooled 22-year old tennis champion knew even then that Hingis's new-found happiness would be short-lived.

In the event, it was not long before Hingis realised that what she desperately sought and finally found in the everywoman garb was not much more than a lottery winner's initial euphoria — not lasting happiness, really.

She'd lived the life she had dreamed of living; but it was not good enough. Late last year, Hingis announced that she was going to play fulltime on the Tour this year. And she got off to a splendid start by making the quarterfinals of the Australian Open where she was beaten in there close sets by Kim Clijsters.

"I never regret one minute of coming back,'' said Hingis recently. "That's probably the most positive thing that has happened. Every person needs something in life that really pushes you and makes you want to do something.''

At last, the woman who, in 1997, aged 16, became the youngest Wimbledon champion of the 20th century, had found the key to real happiness, a state of happiness that is a by-product of pursuing an activity whose meaning — athletic perfection, sporting immortality — is larger than the individual agent involved.

Remarkable comeback

For someone who has been away from the game for almost three full years, Hingis has done wonderfully well since coming back. She is 35-11 this year and has already won a title — in Rome.

The former world No.1 has not played on grass since losing in the first round to Virginia Ruano Pascual at the 2001 Wimbledon championships and she did not enter in any of the warm-up events. But, knowing how hungry Hingis is, these are minor details.

No matter how well she does here, the intriguing question is this: can Hingis go all the way and pull off the impossible feat of reclaiming the No.1 ranking? There are a few mountains to climb yet, but few of us would wager our life's savings against it.

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