16 Aug 2011

Federer to speak to Hingis about playing at London 2012

6:01 pm on 16 August 2011

The world tennis number 3 Roger Federer says he'll speak to Martina Hingis about the possibility of a dream mixed doubles pairing for Switzerland at next year's London Olympics.

Federer, speaking at the ATP Masters event in Cincinnati, says he'll talk to the now-retired Hingis to see if she would be interested.

However, the 16-time Grand Slam champion admitted he didn't know if it was realistic for him to play singles, doubles and mixed doubles at the London Games.

Federer says he mentioned the possibility to Hingis "a long time ago" but had not spoken to her about it recently.

Federer won doubles gold with Stanislas Wawrinka at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, but he has never won singles gold at the Games.

Hingis, playing a pro-am on the opening day of the WTA's San Diego Open earlier this month, said she wasn't thinking about coming out of retirement to play in London.

The former teen star dominated from 1997-1999 but quit the game in 2007 without contesting a positive test for cocaine after proclaiming her innocence.

Were she to reconsider the offer, Hingis would then have to - under strict ITF regulations - make a return to the WTA (if only in doubles), make herself available for the Swiss Fed Cup team and also become available for doping tests.