The first Swiss superstar
The Eastern Swiss was always ahead of her time – so far that she easily overwhelmed the Swiss public with her successes. In a country that mainly cheers for the alpine stars from the manageable ski scene and chooses wrestling kings as athletes of the year, one was not prepared for a superstar in a world sport. The appreciation and respect that Hingis receives in London is far greater than that in Switzerland: “The English have a keen sense of sports history,” she says. This is also expressed on the wooden plaque in the players’ restaurant, on which the name Hingis is immortalized between Steffi Graf and Jana Novotna. In 2013 she was inducted into the Hall of Fame of international tennis, something no one from Switzerland has done before. In Switzerland, on the other hand, she doesn’t even make it into the preselection for the athlete of the century. And yet she now feels greater appreciation: “The documentary film on Swiss television a year ago corrected my image for the better.”
2023-07-16 07:06:50
#return #tennis #queen #Martina #Hingis
