Newport, RI – Former world No. 1 star and five-time Grand Slam singles champion Martina Hingis heads the class for election into the International Tennis Hall of Fame this year.
The other members of the Class of 2013 announced Monday are Cliff Drysdale, Charlie Pasarell, and Ion Tiriac. Australian player Thelma Coyne Long's election had been announced earlier.
"Being inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame is tremendous honor," said Hingis. "It is truly a privilege to be part of such an exclusive group of tennis icons. I am looking forward to the enshrinement weekend in Newport and to being welcomed in by the other Hall of Famers."
The 32-year-old Hingis will enter the Hall in the recent player category, while Drysdale, Pasarell and Tiriac will go in as contributors, and the 94- year-old Coyne Long will enter in the master player category.
The Swiss Hingis was the world No. 1 singles player for 209 non- consecutive weeks and the No. 1 doubles player for 35 non-consecutive weeks. She is in elite company with Martina Navratilova, Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario, Lindsay Davenport, and Kim Clijsters as one of only five players in history to have simultaneously held both the No. 1 singles and doubles ranking.
Hingis captured a total of 15 Grand Slam titles during her career, including nine in women's doubles. Her first major championship came at Wimbledon in 1996, when she partnered with Helena Sukova to win the doubles title at the age of 15 years and 9 months, setting the record for the youngest Grand Slam champion in history.
The "Swiss Miss" was also the youngest woman to reach No. 1 in the singles rankings, doing so in March 1997 at 16 1/2.
In 1997, Hingis captured singles titles at three of the four Grand Slam events -- the Australian Open, Wimbledon, and U.S. Open -- and lost in the final of the French Open. She was honored as the WTA Player of the Year.
Plagued by foot injuries, Hingis retired for a second time in 2007 after receiving a two-year suspension for testing positive for cocaine at Wimbledon. She denied ever taking the drug, but did not appeal the penalty.
Hingis finished with 43 singles titles, 37 doubles titles and a singles record of 548-133. She also led Switzerland to its lone Fed Cup final in 1998, which resulted in a loss to Spain.
The 71-year-old Drysdale was a player in the 1960s and '70s who reached a career-high No. 4 in the world and helped start the ATP Tour, serving as its first president from 1972-74. He has been a tennis announcer for ESPN since the network's first telecast of the sport, a United States-Argentina Davis Cup matchup in 1979.
The 69-year-old Pasarell was also a fine player. He was a former college champion at UCLA and a member of the U.S. Davis Cup team before helping to grow the sport. Like Drysdale, he was a key figure at the ATP's inception. Pasarell also had a long association with the combined men's and women's tournament at Indian Wells, Calif.
And following his own playing career, which included the 1970 French Open men's doubles title, the 73-year-old Tiriac has held prominent roles as a coach, player manager and tournament promoter. His most famous client was now-fellow Hall-of-Famer Boris Becker.
The Hall of Fame enshrinement ceremony will be held on July 13 in Newport, Rhode Island.
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