Hingis’ drug accusations a net loss

It was a strange and sad finish to a once illustrious career. Martina Hingis, at one time the top tennis player in the world, was reduced to offering clippings of her hair in an attempt to separate herself from the allegations of illegal drug use at Wimbledon.

Hingis, it was announced by her attorney, had failed a drug test after losing in the third round. And it wasn’t one of those newfangled steroid tests she failed — nope, this was just good ol’ fashioned cocaine … you know, real drugs.

The 27-year-old Hingis, of course, denied her guilt. Who would want to see her legacy — five grand slams and 36 titles — end in such a tarnished manner? Perhaps, she speculated, she was given a spiked drink.

Because, you know, there are so many people who are willing to dump cocaine into tennis players’ drinks these days — no matter that it would make absolutely no sense to do so. Maybe there are forces out there that wanted to see Hingis’ reputation further smeared … No. 7 seeds are often targeted for defamation.

I was a huge fan of Hingis’ style of play. It seemed overplayed, but hers was a game that was more about speed and counter-punching … about angles and accuracy. It was hard not to root for her when she took on giants like the Williams sisters or Amelie Mauresmo and won. She was the top-seed and an underdog all at once.

But she was not a gracious champion. She made fun of Venus Williams’ hair, collecting the beads that would fall off her hair during a match and show them off like trophies at the press conferences afterward. She called Mauresmo a “half man,” and she cried during her French Open loss to Steffi Graf in 1999. That was hard to watch.

I watched as the stronger players began to beat her, and I watched her retire from tennis in 2003, blaming faulty footwear for a debilitating injury. In 2006 she returned, and she won three more titles and proved that on any given day, she could beat anyone. Still, she never made it past the quarterfinals of any Grand Slam tournament.

I had a chance to observe Hingis practice at the U.S. Open this past year. She seemed to really have a lot of fun out there, her famed Cheshire Cat smile in full force. Her volleys were still some of the best I had ever seen, but I could see that she was not ready to crack back into the circle of champions.

And now she’s in an entirely different circle, one that includes people like Rafael Palmeiro and Marion Jones — the kind of athlete who says “100 percent, not guilty” and denies using drugs, but doesn’t bother to fight off the allegations.