Former tennis prodigy Martina Hingis reached the pinnacle of the WTA rankings at just 16 years old, building a career filled with triumphs and controversies
Martina Hingis made waves in women’s tennis during the 1990s, bursting onto the WTA circuit with record-breaking success. By the age of 16, she had already reached the No. 1 ranking, solidifying her status as a tennis prodigy.
Her meteoric rise, however, was accompanied by a series of controversies, including a multimillion-dollar lawsuit and doping allegations, which ultimately reshaped her career trajectory.
Hingis’s journey to stardom began in what is now Slovakia, where she was born into a tennis family. Her mother, former player Melanie Molitor, and her father, tennis coach Karol Hingis, named her after legend Martina Navratilova. By age five, she had a racket in her hand and was on a path to greatness.
Competing under the Swiss flag by the mid-1990s, Hingis quickly rose to prominence. Before turning 15, she was already a professional on the WTA circuit. Her breakthrough came in 1997 when she won the Australian Open, becoming the youngest-ever World No. 1 at just 16 years and 182 days—an unbeaten record.
That year, Hingis also captured titles at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open, while finishing as the runner-up at Roland Garros. Her unmatched success as a teenager set the stage for a glittering career.