Playing on the surface for the first time since last year's disappointing showing at Wimbledon, Hingis won the $570,000 Heineken Trophy tennis tournament when her opponent, Ruxandra Dragomir, retired in the second set due to a toe injury in today's final.
Hingis was leading the eighth-seeded Dragomir, 6-2, 3-0 when the Romanian retired.
"My big toe started to hurt during the quarterfinals," Dragomir said. "Today it was painful when I ran forwards and Martina made a lot of drop shots so it got worse and I couldn't carry on playing. I'm playing on Monday at Wimbledon so I have one day to get better. Otherwise, it will be difficult for me."
Hingis won just two complete matches en route to her fourth title of the season and the 30th of her career. After a first-round bye, Hingis beat Jana Nejedly of Canada in the second round and benefited from a walkover when Zimbabwe's Cara Black withdrew due to the flu in the quarterfinals. In the semifinals, Hingis downed fourth-seeded American Jennifer Capriati in straight sets.
"At least I won't be tired for Wimbledon, but I've played few matches here and even today I had nine good games," Hingis said. "The match against Jennifer yesterday was also good practice. I've not played any Top 10 going into Wimbledon but I feel good and confident in my game so I look forward to starting there."
Rain suspended the men's semifinal matches until Sunday.
Second-seeded Nicolas Escude of France and fifth-seeded American Michael Chang were tied, 2-2, and No. 3 Patrick Rafter of Australia led Martin Damm of the Czech Republic, 5-2 when their matches were halted today.
Hingis fell to Jelena Dokic of Australia in the first round of Wimbledon last year. At the time, Hingis was coming off an emotional French Open final loss to Steffi Graf and was in the midst of a brief separation from her coach and mother, Melanie Molitor.
Hingis since has regrouped, but was a semifinal loser to eventual champion Mary Pierce at this year's French Open. She had one grasscourt title, winning Wimbledon in 1997, before winning here.
Rafter won one tournament during his injury-plagued 1999 campaign, claiming his second straight Heineken Open title here. He is attempting to become the first player ever to win three crowns at this event.
Rafter's win here last year, along with a semifinal run at Wimbledon, helped lift him to the world's No. 1 ranking, but two months later he suffered a shoulder injury during the first round of the U.S. Open. He underwent arthroscopic surgery in October to repair a tear in his right shoulder.
The return to form has been slow for the two-time U.S. Open champion. After reaching the quarterfinals in his first event in February at Delray Beach, Rafter was unable to get past the third round in a tournament before this one.
Top seed Lleyton Hewitt of Australia was forced to pull out of the event on Wednesday due to an acute sprain of his left ankle. Hewitt injured himself during the Stella Artois Championships last week.
The men's winner takes home $54,000.