|
|
 |
 |   |
|
EVENTS Fantasy Central Inside Game Video Plus Statitudes Your Turn Message Boards Email Newsletters Golf Guide Cities 
CNNSI.com GROUP
COMMERCE
|  |
On her own Hingis adjusting well without mother at her side
GENEVA (AP) -- The world's No. 1 woman tennis player Martina Hingis, whose first attempt to cut loose from her mother's coaching ended in failure two years ago, is trying again to make it on her own, according to Swiss media reports. "For several weeks, Martina Hingis has found herself on her own as she has confronted Capriati, Sanchez and Williams. No mother, no coach, no manager," said the Geneva daily Le Temps on Thursday. But the weekly Schweizer Illustrierte said Hingis is content and anything but "sad, lonely and defeated." Rather, she is "self-confident, happy and victorious" in other aspects of life, the weekly said. "The people from the WTA and the tournament are terribly nice. The Swiss cook in my hotel prepares specialties from my homeland just for me. And many friends have called me because I'm alone. I even had to turn off my cellphone because it got to be too much," Hingis was quoted as saying at the Family Circle Cup in Charleston, South Carolina, last week. Hingis' mother, Melanie Molitor, confirmed to the Zurich daily Tages-Anzeiger from the family home in eastern Switzerland that she no longer regards herself as her daughter's coach. "At the moment we only have personal contact," Tages-Anzeiger quoted Molitor as saying. "When I coach someone, I work together with the person from morning to evening. If I only give someone my opinion, I don't feel I am a coach. In fact I give some pointers to Martina, but what she does with them is her affair." Molitor said her personal relationship with her daughter remains "intact. And there hasn't been a fight. Martina phones often. She's coming next week from Florida to Switzerland and will train here for several days." But Molitor said she didn't know whether she would join her daughter in Berlin in two weeks. Mario Widmer, Molitor's companion, told Tages-Anzeiger he no longer is Hingis' manager. "I am still her adviser," Widmer said. "If she has a problem she telephones me, and naturally I give her advice." Molitor said the separation came after Hingis lost to Venus Williams in the semifinals in Miami last month. "There was tension between the professional and the personal relationships," Tages-Anzeiger quoted her as saying. "The separation was at that time the only possibility to avoid damaging the personal relationship. Whenever three people as different as Martina, Mario and I live together, everyone always has to be ready to make compromises. "However, all the compromises got too big for everybody and the personal relationships suffered. We didn't want that." On her own Hingis lost to Arantxa Sanchez Vicario in the quarterfinals at Amelia Island two weeks ago and to Jennifer Capriati in the finals at Charleston last Sunday. But Molitor said it will take much longer to see whether Hingis can recover on her own. Molitor, previously a constant presence at her daughter's games, conceded it was hard to watch from afar. "This is a very difficult time for me after all the years I have worked and lived for her. A changeover process is required." Even if she resumes coaching Hingis, it won't be the same, Molitor told Tages-Anzeiger. "It will never again be like it was before. But perhaps we will work together in another way. Martina is no longer 18, but nearly 21. You must not tell her everything. She's an adult." Molitor, 43, said she had no plans to retire from coaching and that she had agreed with Octagon to train female tennis players, including young girls, under contract to the agency. "That is all being worked out," she said. Two years ago Hingis took a brief break from her mother after she stormed off the court in tears following a loss to Steffi Graf in the finals of the French Open. Two weeks later -- with her mother staying away -- the top-seeded Hingis lost a humiliating first round match to 16-year-old Australian qualifier Jelena Dokic at Wimbledon.
| ||||||||||||||||||||
