LONDON (AP) — Martina Hingis is returning to play at Wimbledon for the first time in seven years.
The former singles and doubles champion from Switzerland was granted a wild card by the All England Club on Wednesday for the women’s doubles tournament. Her partner is Russia’s Vera Zvonareva, a former doubles winner and singles runner-up.
In addition to her singles title in 1997, the 33-year-old Hingis is a two-time doubles winner at Wimbledon, with Helena Sukova in 1996 and Jana Novotna in 1998.
After a second retirement in 2007, Hingis returned to the game in July 2013 but has restricted her outings to doubles.
She last played at Wimbledon in 2007, losing in the third round of the singles. Her last doubles appearance at Wimbledon dates back to 2000, when she went out in the second round.
Hingis has been playing doubles this year with Germany’s Sabine Lisicki. They won in Miami, giving Hingis her first title since 2007.
With Lisicki now concentrating on singles, Hingis turned to Zvonareva, who won the Wimbledon doubles title with Elena Vesnina in 2010 and lost to Serena Williams in the singles final in 2010.
However, the 29-year-old Zvonareva has barely competed since 2012 because of illness and injury.
Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus, a Wimbledon semifinalist in 2006, was granted a wild card for the men’s singles tournament. His ATP ranking has slipped to No. 118. Five British players also received wild cards.
Among the women, Kristyna Pliskova of the Czech Republic and three British players were given wild card singles entries.
More wild cards will be announced before play begins on June 23rd.
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