Despite reports in the Swiss media that Martina Hingis might be planning to come out of retirement and play a Fed Cup tie against Australia in February, her camp has denied that to TENNIS.com.
Rene Stammbach, the president of the Swiss Tennis Federation, told the Swiss press that he hopes "to get Hingis' commitment within the next few days."
However, Hingis’ camp told TENNIS.com that there is "no truth to that at this time" and suspects "they have a big arena to fill and no active players to fill it. We want to avoid their creating hype, rumors, gimmicks to sell tickets."
With the recent retirement of former Top 10 player Patty Schnyder, Switzerland’s two highest-ranked players are No. 138 Stefanie Voegele and No. 243 Timea Bacsinszky, who tore a ligament in her left foot early last spring and underwent surgery. The 22-year-old, who reached a career high No. 37 in June, has not played since last March.
Hingis, 31, has never officially retired and there have been minor talks between her and Roger Federer's camps about the possibility of her playing mixed doubles together at the 2012 Olympics in London. But the five-time Grand Slam champion has made no real moves in order to meet a series of requirements that might allow her to qualify for the event, including a mandatory appearance in Fed Cup, as well as making a comeback on the WTA tour. Moreover, Federer himself has said that he isn't sure whether he wants to play singles, doubles and mixed.
—Matt Cronin