Hingis and Murray clinch their second Grand Slam title in two tournaments as a team.
NEW YORK — Martina Hingis and Jamie Murray have been the perfect partnership.
The question now is whether it will continue.
Hingis and Murray won the U. S. Open mixed doubles title Saturday, beating Michael Venus of New Zealand and Chan Hao-Ching of Taiwan 6-1,4-6,10-8 in a match tiebreaker for their second Grand Slam title in two tournaments as a team.
They are 10-0 since first playing together at Wimbledon, yet neither could commit to bringing it back at the Australian Open in January.
“It’s a long way to go until next year, ” Hingis said.
Hingis said even after winning Wimbledon they waited a bit before talking about their plans for New York. They will do the same now, though if Hingis decides to keep playing after turning 37 at the end of this month, it sounds as if it will be with Murray.
“We said yes, if we go to Australia, everyone is healthy and playing. So that’s not an issue this time, I believe, ” she said.
Twenty years after winning the U. S. Open singles title, Hingis earned her 24th Grand Slam title, including a fifth at Flushing Meadows. The member of the International Tennis Hall of Fame has won five in singles, 12 in doubles, and seven in mixed doubles.
She’ ll go for No. 25 in women’s doubles on Sunday — with Chan’s sister as her partner.
Murray, the older brother of 2012 U. S. Open champion Andy Murray, won his third Grand Slam mixed doubles title.
The top-seeded team won three match tiebreakers in the tournament. Match tiebreakers come if the teams have split two sets.
Hingis, who reached No. 1 in the rankings and won five Grand Slam singles titles in the 1990s, initially quit tennis in 2002 because of foot and leg injuries, then rejoined the circuit full-time in 2006. She announced her retirement again in 2007, when she was given a two-year suspension for testing positive for cocaine at Wimbledon. At the time, she denied taking the drug but did not appeal the ruling.
She returned to the tennis tour in recent years as a coach before starting to play again.
Murray will surely be interested to see if she’ ll keep playing.
“It’s been a lot of fun for me, ” Murray said. “Like, a great opportunity for me to compete with Martina. She’s such a great player, you know, a huge champion of the game.»
