Wimbledon

Hingis granted wild card to play at Wimbledon

ESPN staff

June 11, 2014

Lindsay Davenport and Martina Hingis won the Wimbledon Legends' doubles event in 2011 © Getty Images

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Martina Hingis will return to competitive action at Wimbledon for the first time in seven years after being handed a wildcard for the women's doubles tournament.

Hingis, the 1997 singles champion, will play alongside Russia's Vera Zvonareva. The 33-year-old returned to the game last summer following a second retirement in 2007 and won the doubles title at Wimbledon with Helena Sukova in 1996 and Jana Novotna in 1998.

Her last match at Wimbledon came in the third round in 2007, while she hasn't featured in the doubles there since 2000 when she exited in the second round.

Hingis secured her first title since 2007 when she won the Miami doubles event in March this year with Germany's Sabine Lisicki, who finished runner-up to Marion Bartoli at Wimbledon last summer.

Dan Evans (pictured) and James Ward both went out in the second round at Queen's this week © Getty Images

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In the men's singles, former Australian Open finalist Marcos Baghdatis has been granted an entry, while British hopes Dan Evans, James Ward and Dan Cox are also included.

Ward and Evans both went out in the second round at Queen's Club on Tuesday, while British No.4 Cox lost his opening match at the start of the week.

British teenager Kyle Edmund, the world no.297, makes the cut for the second year in a row, despite the Lawn Tennis Association's usual policy of handing entries to British players ranked 250 or higher.

World no.118 Baghdatis is another exception, having seen off Marinko Matosevic to claim his first title since 2010 in Nottingham last week.

Britain's Dan Smethurst makes it in as No.243 in the world, while Naomi Broady, Tara Moore and Samantha Murray are included in the ladies' singles draw.

There are still two men's and four women's entries to be decided, with the Czech Republic's Kristyna Pliskova, ranked 100 in the world, also included in the ladies' draw.

Heather Watson and Johanna Konta qualified for the tournament directly through their ranking.