In Wimbledon’s lengthy list of records and achievements the name of Lottie Dod figured, it seemed, as a permanent legend. It was in 1887, at the age of 15 years and 285 days, that Lottie won the first of her five singles titles - the youngest Wimbledon champion, man or woman.
Then, on this day in 1996, a demure but hard-as-nails Swiss miss called Martina Hingis eclipsed Miss Dod’s mark by three days, capturing the Ladies’ Doubles Championship with Helena Sukova at 15 years and 282 days.
By then, records galore were already in the bag for Hingis, born in the Slovakian town of Kosice but brought up since the age of seven in Switzerland by her deeply ambitious mother, Melanie. Named by Melanie after Martina Navratilova, Hingis won the Swiss senior title aged 12, became Wimbledon and French Open junior champion in 1994 at 13, and turned professional at 14.
Hingis competed in the 1995 and 1996 Ladies’ Singles, having the misfortune to run into the all-conquering Steffi Graf on both occasions, but glory awaited in the 1996 doubles event. Paired with the tall Czech Sukova, this little and large combination were seeded eighth. They swept through the first three rounds without dropping a set before knocking out the top seeds, Arantxa Sanchez Vicario and Jana Novotna, 3-6, 7-6, 6-3 and then overcoming the Australia-USA combination of Elizabeth Smylie and Linda Wild 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 in the semis.
The final, against Meredith McGrath of the United States and Latvia’s Larisa Neiland, was another tight three-setter in which Hingis-Sukova led 5-7, 7-5, 4-1 when the bad weather which had plagued the 1996 Championships pushed the Sunday final into a Monday decider, which was rapidly sorted out as Hingis and Sukova won the next two games.
That precious result gave Hingis the lift-off which her mother Melanie, all of Switzerland and most of the tennis world were confidently predicting. Two months later she was a singles semi-finalist at the US Open and four months after that came the first of her Grand Slam singles triumphs, as champion at the 1997 Australian Open at the age of 16 years and three months.
That was the year Hingis soared to prime spot in the women’s world rankings, winning Wimbledon against Jana Novotna and the US Open against Venus Williams. Only a surprise loss to Iva Majoli in the French Open final stood between the 16-year-old wonder girl and the historic Grand Slam of all four majors in the same year.
In a career subsequently beset by injuries and a suspension for social drug use, Hingis retired a couple of times, opted to come back and, at the age of 34 at the 2015 Championships, she claimed two more Wimbledon titles: the Ladies’ Doubles with Sania Mirza and the Mixed with Leander Paes.
Having captured the world No.1 spot in March 1997 for the first time, Hingis spent a total of 209 weeks as the game’s best, in four spells, until she was finally deposed in October 2001, explaining her success against taller and bigger-hitting opponents with a boxing analogy: “My strategy is to hit them quick and hard.”
