LONDON — Martina Hingis is back in a final at Wimbledon for the first time since 1998 — in doubles. Hingis, a member of the International Tennis Hall of Fame, and doubles partner Sania Mirza are seeded No. 1 and won their semifinal against the fifth-seeded American pair of Raquel Kops-Jones and Abigail Spears 6-1, 6-2 on Friday. The 34-year-old Hingis and Mirza, the first woman from India to be ranked No. 1 in singles or doubles, will face the second-seeded Russian duo of Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina in the final. Makarova and Vesnina, who won last year's US Open, beat Timea Babos and Kristina Mladenovic 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 in the other semifinal. Seventeen years ago, Hingis won the Wimbledon doubles trophy with Jana Novotna. Hingis won all four majors in doubles that season, teaming with Mirjana Lucic-Baroni at the Australian Open, and Novotna at the others. Hingis, who 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. The Swiss star returned to tennis in recent years as a coach and now is back playing, perhaps with an eye to competing at next year's Rio Olympics.
