Comment: Precocious, the operative word

Psst… a former world No. 1 slipped into town today. Martina Hingis is expected to call the shots at a tennis clinic in a city hotel this morning.

She's still precocious, that's the operative word when it comes to sizing her up. Hingis started off as the youngest player on the WTA Tour. She upped her potential to the next level by becoming the youngest ever No. 1 player in the world (16 years, six months, bettering Seles' record by nine months) and then just as suddenly, she reached the furthest corner of the globe and fell quickly off it.

The world isn't round for everybody, you know.

While on being precocious…Hingis was the youngest pupil in her English class. A majority of her fellow students were older and studying the language in the hope that it would bolster their CV's, she pursued the hobby strictly out of a new-found post-retirement sense of adventure.

Hingis plays a bit of tennis as well, as the kids who have signed up for today's clinic are likely to find out, but only for fun: a part of the retirement package that she has given herself.

What do you know, a human rebound machine and proud of it! The pace is slower and the tempo is good enough to accommodate even her mother for a few shots. This would seem to suggest that the vibes are smooth between Melanie Molitor, the coach cum mother and her pupil/daughter. Minor improvements have obviously been made in her personal life.

But surely, Hingis is still trying to exorcise the demons in her mind regarding a comeback. It does appear on the face of it – or when one sees her face on TV – that she has come to grips with her new- found anonymity, but even that would amount to an assumption given the fact that she has almost always conducted herself with a smile and ultra-professionalism since the age of 13. The smile appears eerie to some and mature to others. The decision to retire is also being assumed by many as a counter tactic to combat the legal muscling of her former sponsors Sergio Tacchini whose shoes had, apparently, more than just affected Hingis' Achilees heel.

Both Hingis and tennis have moved on since her retirement. Clearly one doesn't need the other anymore. The game has benefited from her presence when she combined with the likes of the Williams sisters, Kournikova, Mauresmo, Clijsters and Henin-Hardenne to make the WTA Tour into a blue chip commodity.

And what has the sport done for her? Well, she still retains her star status, even in retirement…
...Which probably explains why the brains behind the clinic laid down a list of do's and don'ts for the media to strictly follow.

No media interviews, limited photo-ops (or photo opportunity only) and even an embargo on the announcement of her arrival.

Does she want to be taken all that seriously? One cannot help but wonder.