The retired Martina Hingis is reticent about trying to play mixed doubles with fellow Swiss Roger Federer at the 2012 Olympics. Hingis said that she has yet to be directly approached by Federer and will not seriously consider it until he does so. Hingis said that one of Federer’s representatives approached her earlier this summer.
In order to play in the Olympics, Hingis would have to have a singles or doubles ranking by June 11, 2012, and in order for her to directly qualify, it would have to be a fairly high one (Top 56 in singles or Top 10 in doubles). The ITF will only accept mixed doubles teams from players who are already on site in London having already qualified in singles or doubles.
"There are talks," Hingis said in San Diego, where she was playing a pro-am. "There are too many ifs at this point. I always said I wasn’t coming back and I did, and after TeamTennis I felt good and with Serena winning Stanford [Hingis split matches with Williams in World TeamTennis]; it makes you think, ‘I played good against her and she beat Sharapova 3 and 1.’ So I’m like, 'Wow I think I played a pretty good match'…But I don’t think I would last a whole match now. TeamTennis is only to five games."
Five-time Grand Slam singles champion Hingis also said that there would be a lot of pressure on her if she played with 16-time Grand Slam champion Federer. "To play with Roger you’d have to being playing great, right?’ she asked.
Hingis said she considered playing doubles with Lindsay Davenport last year on the tour but the partnership never came to fruition. The pairing won the 2011 Roland Garros and Wimbledon senior doubles.
"That’s probably more on my mind," she said. "I felt great playing with Lindsay and people say we should go out on tour, but she’s pregnant. After the first set at Wimbledon she said, ‘I’m 12 weeks pregnant.’ I said, 'OK, I’m the one running. I’ll back you up'…But I was never really just a doubles player; my pride was higher than that. But maybe now it’s a different approach. It would take a lot to bring me back. I enjoy the playing but the travel and the stress—my life is very comfortable now and I enjoy it."