Today is Martina Hingis’s 29th birthday and the last day of her two-year drug suspension. Jon Wertheim has an interesting interview with her posted on the Sports Illustrated website. Click here to read it if you haven’t already (yes, she answers the comeback question.)

Here’s what really got to me:

The amount (of cocaine metabolite found in Hingis’s system during Wimbledon, 2007) was so trace that, in marked contrast to Richard Gasquet — who was cleared to return after completing a 2½-month ban in July when an anti-doping panel ruled that he accidentally ingested cocaine by kissing a woman at a nightclub — Hingis was at a loss even to fashion a plausible theory about how she could have tested positive. (In the past few months the British media have reported about trace levels of cocaine turning up everywhere from the Thames River to restroom sinks.) Though circumstantial evidence is just that — circumstantial — it defies logic that a veteran player who had passed upwards of 100 tests, some of them unannounced and out of competition, would dabble with cocaine in conjunction with a Grand Slam, knowing with virtual certainty that she would be tested.

Roger & Mirka and Steffi & Andre may have formed the ultimate tennis love-matches, but there are many more tumultuous examples: Kim Clijsters & Lleyton Hewitt, Jimmy Connors & Chris Evert and Radek Stepanek & Martina Hingis broke off their engagements, for example, while Verdasco & Ivanovic, Pennetta & Moya and Stepanek & Vaidisova experienced well-documented courtships and break-ups (yes, ladies, “The Worm”  is back on the market, per Tennis.com!)

With the increase in co-ed tournaments and prize money (get thee back, gold digging groupies!), The Wall Street Journal claims that love is in the air – and on the courts – more than ever. I’d argue that Marat Safin’s imminent retirement has dashed the hopes of lusty WTA players, making Radek et. al. more appealing, but what do I know?

Here are some excerpts from Hannah Karp’s WSJ article called Tennis Gets Hot and Heavy: Increase in Co-Ed Events Sparks More Love Matches; Federer as “Eye Candy.” (Click here for the full article and thanks to Forty Deuce for posting on this.)

The allure of The Worm, explained:

Defending the title of ATP playboy, though, is Czech Radek Stepanek. He was engaged to Martina Hingis, is (not) dating Nicole Vaidisova (anymore) and is known for charming ladies with his sense of humor and a victory dance he calls “the worm,” which he debuted at a player party in the Austrian Alps several years ago after a big win and a little too much Schnapps.

“Everyone was very impressed,” recalls Mr. Stepanek, adding that he hopes his popularity with beautiful women, a subject of much speculation on tennis forums, is “because of who I am as a person.”

Federer “as eye candy.” (No surprise, Marion Bartoli’s quoted on this one!)

Much to the dismay of many female players, Mr. Federer married one of their own in April, former pro Mirka Vavrinec, and is officially off the market. “He was great eye candy,” says France’s Marion Bartoli, who took his picture off her wall after she heard the news.

Tennis players are just like bloggers:

Thirty years ago, just catching a glimpse of players of the opposite sex at the four Grand Slams each year was a thrill. Leslie Allen, a former WTA player who joined the tour in 1977, recalls an early WTA ritual: ranking the male tennis players based on their looks. “We’d choose a captain and a co-captain—we had a whole ranking system,” says Ms. Allen, now a coach at Riverdale Country School in New York.

Forget “Mars vs. Venus”, it’s “Neanderthal vs. Jonas Brother fans”:

“It’s kind of an incestuous world,” says Dr. Mayer (a sports psychologist). When it comes to romance, he says, even the most accomplished male players tend to behave like “neanderthals” and female players like “giggly Jonas Brothers fans.” This often results in “very adolescent” relationships, he says, that last an average of three to four months and tend to have noticeable effects on a player’s performance at various stages.

In the seduction or “wooing” period, Dr. Mayer says, performance generally peaks. Canada’s top player, Frank Dancevic, for example, says he achieved the best result of his life the first time he brought his girlfriend to a tournament in Indianapolis two years ago. “I think I was just trying to show off—I didn’t want to look like a wuss,” says Mr. Dancevic.

As relationships progress, however, things can get complicated. Dr. Mayer says he watched one tour relationship hit the skids after the male player repackaged a watch given to him by a major tour sponsor and sent it to his girlfriend, another pro player, fibbing that he’d bought the watch in Paris—not knowing that his girlfriend had received the same watch from the same sponsor.

Any guesses on who the re-gifter was? URGH! I’m dying to know! The article does mention one cad by name, when Dominika Cibulkova’s coach describes her ex-beau, Gael Monfils, as charming but not “a relationship guy.” We know what that means!

Here’s an audio-visual guide to famous tennis couples (player-on-player and otherwise) – the Roddick photo at the end is priceless!

This calls for a poll!

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“They say it themselves and it’s true, the Parisian crowd is pretty stupid. I think the French don’t like it when a Spaniard wins. Wanting someone to lose is a slightly conceited way of amusing yourself. They show the stupidity of people who think themselves superior.”

That’s Uncle Toni Nadal talking to Spanish radio after his nephew, Rafa, got bumped out of Roland Garros on Sunday to Robin Soderling. (via The Guardian)

The Swede underdog was buoyed by the cheers of the French crowd, which offered little love to the four-time defending champion. In key points of the match, the stands shuddered under cheers of “Ro-bin! Ro-bin!” John McEnroe quipped that Soderling had never experienced such support – in Sweden.

Nadal noticed, too:

“This tournament is so important, such a beautiful tournament for me. . .I wish when I’m back they (the crowd) can support me a bit more in key moments.”

Flashback to Rafa’s 2005 Roland Garros debut, when the crowd was so angry at an umpire’s (correct) decision against Rafa’s opponent, Sebastien Grosjean, that play was halted for a full seven minutes under a barrage of catcalls and whistles.

“The crowd yesterday didn’t behave as they should behave when watching a game of tennis.” the 18 year-old Rafa said later. (via The Independent)

Rafa lost that set against the Frenchman, but went on to win the match and then his first title in Paris.

He wasn’t so lucky this time , but Rafa and his fans can take cold comfort in knowing that he isn’t alone.  Many a great Champion has been humbled by the Roland Garros audience.

Last year’s target was Maria Sharapova, who had the nerve to be ranked No. 1 and show emotion while losing to Dinara Safina in the fourth round. The crowd hissed her off the court for the crime of caring too much and too loudly. The Guardian described the jeers as “nasty, bullying” and the spectators as a “mob on the move.” Maria, of course, said it was just business:

“I can’t please everyone; that’s not in my job description. I’m an athlete. I go out there and fight my heart out. I mean, they paid for a ticket to watch me so they must appreciate me on some level, right?”

Even more contentious was the 2003 French Open semi-final between Justine Henin and Serena Williams, where the crowd was so pro-Henin, that they booed Serena for protesting the Belgian’s gamesmanship. Here’s a (scratchy) video of the famous “hand” incident:

Serena was so rattled by Justine, the crowd, and the moment, that she ended up losing that game and, eventually, the match. She couldn’t hide her disappointment, afterwards. You can guess who “they” are:

Sometimes the crowd behaves less like a lynch mob and more like a Greek chorus. My all-time favorite French Open scene is from the 1999 final between Martina Hingis and Steffi Graf:

The most important thing to remember before catcalling the French Open crowd: for every Champion sent steaming into the locker room, there’s an enraptured underdog left blowing kisses on the court. Who can forget the “Mexican wave” that brought Gaston Gaudio back from two sets down against Guillermo Coria in the 2004 final? He was just two games away from defeat when the cheeky crowd rallied him to victory:

“I was too nervous,” Gaudio said later. “After the wave, the people started to help me, and I relaxed a little bit.” (via USA Today)

But why is the French Crowd so finicky? Why can’t the spectators be respectful, like the British, or eating hot dogs, like the Americans? What motivates these passionate and pissy performances on one of the sport’s great stages?

Blame it on the “Poulidor Syndrome.”

GTT commenter and French tennis fan, “whynotme” educated me on this affliction that tortures the collective French psyche. It’s named after Raymond Poulidor, an immensely popular and unlucky French cyclist from the 1960s:

“Poulidor was a French cyclist, very talented, he won a lot of tournaments, but he never EVER won the Tour de France, though he finished 3 times as second, and 5 times as third. Each and every time, something happened to him that prevented him from winning it (whether it was multiples falls, flat tires or even a motorcycle who ran into him!) And that’s why he had a storied rivalry with Jacques Antequil, who on the contrary was winning the Tour (5 times). What happened in France is that everyone started rooting for Poulidor, everybody wanted him to finally win. And so French people kind of disliked Antequil, if not hated him. He was booed, they whistled at him.”

Poulidor explained the phenomenon this way: “The more unlucky I was, the more the public liked me and the more money I earned.” (via Wikipedia)

See, sometimes irrational behavior is anything but! Even Uncle Toni might reconsider his slur: the crowd doesn’t hate a Spaniard, just a Jacques Antequil.

Hate the sickness, not the sufferer, Uncle Toni.

Thanks again to “Whynotme” for the insight and on-site reports from RG!

Rafael Nadal wishing he had a face mask: photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images via Daylife.

Matt Cronin of tennisreporters.net found the on-court angle to the ever-complicating story of Fernando Verdasco’s love life:

TUESDAY, MARCH 31 – Is Fernando Verdasco entering a black widower phase? In Miami, the Spaniard crushed Czech Radek “Black Widower I” Stepanek 6-2, 6-2 to reach the quarters, while at the same time on another court, his new friend, Caroline Wozniacki, was taken out by Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-1. Since he became the poster boy for team adidas, Verdasco has dated another adidas player, Ana Ivanovic, whose best result, the Indian Wells final, came after their breakup. While in Las Vegas training prior to Indian Wells, he became close to Wozniacki, who in the California desert and Miami, has underachieved. Two other players whom he trained next to in Vegas, Sania Mirza and Sorana Cirstea, have underperformed, too.

While none of their spotty play can be firmly placed on top of the Spaniard’s shoulders, it’s not totally unreasonable to mention a little hint of guilt by association. BTW: a TR friend mentioned that had Nicole Vaidisova beaten Kuznetsova in the previous round, it would have been one of the few times where one GF (Vaidisova) was playing an alleged GF (Wozniacki), and a BF (Stepanek) was playing an alleged BF (Verdasco).

Click here for more.

Just for the record, it’s been semi-established that the flirtatious Fernando was dumped by Ivanovic, is just friends with adidas cohort, Caroline Wozniacki, and is getting cozy with “what’s she been in, again?” actress Camilla Belle, who may or may not still be BFFs with Maria Sharapova and girlfriend to Jonas brother Joe Jonas. (If you really want to waste some time, click here for a funny report on Camilla Belle’s Verdasco-related “Tweets” with accompanying video.)

To make things more complicated, Martina Hingis, former fiancee to Radek Stepanek, was the most famous black widow of all, mythically causing injury to tennis boyfriends Radek Stepanek, Magnus Norman, and Justin Gimelstob and even to doubles partner Anna Kournikova (click here for the rundown.)

So let’s just blame everything on Martina Hingis and call it a day, shall we? She’s like the Stefano character on Days of Our Lives. . .on the Tennis Tour.

Photo courtesy of Great Tennis Photos.