These female tennis stars were failed by their feet

In the runup to the Wimbledon Championships, the tennis world has been focused on the condition of Rafael Nadal's deteriorating left foot.

But the fact is, serious lingering foot injuries are far more common on the women's professional tour. They've derailed plenty of promising tennis careers — including those of popular champions. Here are just a few of the Women's Tennis Association Tour’s biggest names who have been failed by their feet.

Martina Hingis

Hingis is perhaps the biggest “what if?” question in the history of women’s tennis. She won five Grand Slam singles titles, 13 Grand Slam doubles titles and seven Grand Slam mixed doubles titles.

Yet despite spending a total of 209 weeks as the singles world No. 1 and 90 weeks as doubles world No. 1 (and holding both No.1 rankings simultaneously for 29 weeks), just as she was entering what should have been her prime, she announced her retirement at age 22 in 2003 because of the pain from injuries (and subsequent surgeries) to her feet and ankles. In 2001, Hingis had famously sued her former sponsor, Sergio Tacchini, for $40 million for outfitting her with “defective” shoes that were “unsuitable for competition.” The lawsuit was dismissed in 2002.

Hingis eventually made brief comebacks to the WTA Tour in the mid 2000s, late 2000s and 2010s (the latter primarily as a successful doubles specialist) — but was never again among the sport’s elite singles players.   

Anna Kournikova

Concurrent to Hingis’ late 1990s-early 2000s run at the top of the sport, Anna Kournikova became arguably the most popular female tennis player ever as her worldwide celebrity transcended the sport despite her never notching a title in singles.

The blonde Russian’s combination of beauty, sex appeal, rumored romantic relationships and undeniable tennis talent made her a Madison Avenue dream at the dawn of the internet age. She reportedly made far more income off the court than she did on it.