Martina Hingis’s decision to retire after admitting to failing a drugs test has been met with a mixture of incredibility, depression and confusion by members of her country’s French-speaking press.

The 27-year-old has strongly denied taking cocaine and claims to have taken a hair test that proves her innocence. However, her protestations have not met with unequivocal support and L’Express has questioned her “lame defence”.

The newspaper quotes Beat Villiger, a Swiss Olympic doctor, who disputes the relevance of the hair test. “The urine test constitutes a normally effective proof of cocaine,” he is quoted as saying. “The hair test proves only that Martina Hingis is not a chronic consumer of cocaine.” According to the doctor, it is not surprising that the analysis of her hair, done in September, two months after the initial test, came back negative. He says that the results could be consistent with occasional consumption of cocaine.

In a comment piece, the same newspaper says the failed test is a bitter pill to swallow, but with reference to one of her sponsor’s, adds that although “she washes whiter than white, she has chosen the wrong powder on this occasion”. However, it hopes that the stain on her reputation will not wipe out her immense achievements. It adds that although hers is not the biggest sporting myth to collapse in recent times - and it will not be the last - it is one of the biggest.

Expert View

I don’t believe she was ever innocent in her life, certainly not as an athlete in a confrontation sport

Simon Barnes

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BACKGROUND

• Hingis makes exit under cloud of suspicion

• The smile that sounded alarm bells

• Criminal prosecution unlikely says Scotland Yard

• Martina Hingis's statement in full

BACKGROUND

• What the Swiss papers say about Hingis

• The smile that sounded alarm bells

• Martina Hingis factfile

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Le Matin says that “no one can really understand why and in what circumstances she would have touched cocaine”. It carries an interview with Mario Widmer, her manager, who says that she “would never take something like that”. He says that it is highly unlikely that she would return even if the scandal was resolved in her favour but “you can’t exclude anything.”

Le Tribune de Geneve also wonders whether she “thought it was washing powder” but says that the sport will remember her most for her trophies and her exceptional talent.