THE SCOOP, JUNE 24

Martina Hingis: from court to courting

By Sandra Harwitt
tennisreporters.net

From court to courting or is it the other way around?

Only last weekend, news broke that Martina Hingis has a new boyfriend – Miami-Dade County Assistant State Attorney Chris Calkin. The two met when the 31-year-old Calkin was assigned as the prosecutor to the stalking case of Dubravko Rajcevik, the Romanian born-Australian citizen who had been following Hingis around the world, claiming they were a twosome.

Calkin not only won the case, but won the heart of Hingis as well.

Just this past weekend, Calkin was reportedly in Zurich visiting Hingis as she prepared for Wimbledon. tennisreporters.net sources say that Calkin also visited the 20-year-old Hingis at her home at the Saddlebrook Resort this past spring and despite the age difference, the pair were very lovey dovey.

"I'm willing to spend whatever money I can gather, and whatever time I can set aside from my caseload to be there for her," said Calkin, who reportedly earns around $40,000, which presumably won't go too far in courting Hingis around the world.

Nevertheless, everything isn't rosy in the budding romance.

It seems that Rajcevic and his defense attorney, Frank Abrams, are crying foul.

While Calkin says the relationship between him and the world No. 1 tennis player didn't start until two days after Rajcevic's sentencing – he's now spent 448 days of a two-year sentence at the Miami Dade County jail as of Friday, June 22, 2001 – the opposing side is wondering whether there was any plot afoot.

"Mr. Rajcevic is a little upset that Mr. Calkin has stole his thunder," said Abrams, to reporters on Friday afternoon. "It raises the overwhelming presumption of impropriety here – that there was some kind of relationship there."

Abrams has filed a motion to set aside the stalking conviction on behalf of Rajcevic and has subpoenaed state records, phone logs, beeper logs, emails and state bank statements to look for any irregularities. One thing Abrams is pointing to as suspicious is that Hingis managed to keep from testifying for a year after Rajcevic was arrested at the 2000 Ericsson Open and also attempted to testify from videotape instead of in person in the courtroom.

One can only hope that the Hingis-Calkin relationship that started in the courtroom will last longer than Martina's relationships that have started on the tennis court – former tennis boyfriends are Julian Alonso, Justin Gimelstob, Ivo Hueberger, and most recently, Swede Magnus Norman.