
The Swiss five-time Grand Slam champion left her career in tennis yesterday after revealing she had tested positive for cocaine at Wimbledon and is contemplating not taking any action to clear her name.
Martina Hingis, who denies having taken the drug, said she provided a positive urine sample after her straight-sets, third-round defeat by American Laura Granville.
Martina Hingis calls the accusation that she of tested positive for cocaine at Wimbledon “horrendous,” the Associated Press reports.
Martina said “I find this accusation so horrendous, so monstrous that I’ve decided to confront it head-on by talking to the press,” she said Thursday. “I am frustrated and angry. I believe that I am absolutely 100 percent innocent.”
She said she was accused of taking cocaine during this year’s Wimbledon by “an outsource testing company.” She says her reaction was “shocked and appalled” when she notified that her urine sample had come back positive.”
Hingis said she later arranged a hair test, which came back negative for cocaine. But the official backup “B” sample also tested positive for the drug.
The tennis star says her attorney has found “various inconsistencies” with the urine sample taken during Wimbledon.
As for her retirement, Martina said: “I have no desire to spend the next several years of my life reduced to fighting against the doping officials. The fact is that it is more and more difficult for me, physically, to keep playing at the top of the game. And frankly, accusations such as these don’t exactly provide me with motivation to even make another attempt to do so.”
During the highlight of her career, Maritna won three straight Australian Open titles from 1997-99, and both the U.S. Open and Wimbledon in 1997.
She also is the 1997 Wimbledon champ and a five-time Grand Slam winner. This year, she lost in the third round at Wimbledon to Laura Granville.
Women’s Tennis Association Tour chief executive Larry Scott said the tour would not comment. He said the organization hadn’t received any official information about a positive test.