LONDON • Such was Martina Hingis' joy at winning her first Wimbledon title in 17 years in the women's doubles on Saturday that she could not get to sleep until 3am.

But she was even more dazzling less than 24 hours later as she and Indian maestro Leander Paes took the mixed doubles crown.

Between them, the duo have a combined age of 76 but were far too clever for the crash-bang tennis of fifth seeds Alexander Peya and Timea Babos.

They galloped to a 6-1, 6-1 victory in just 41 minutes.

In the early part of her career, Hingis was known as the Swiss Miss. But that moniker was entirely inappropriate on an evening when she was instrumental in producing one of the most dominant performances on Centre Court of these entire championships.

"My body was hurting here, there and everywhere but the adrenaline got me back out there," said Hingis, who took the women's doubles title with Sania Mirza.

Paes said: "To come out there and do it back to back, the physical and mental effort that it takes to win two titles in the same week, is something really, really special."

Hingis' story loses nothing in its retelling. She claimed her first women's doubles title at Wimbledon in 1996, aged 15. She became the youngest singles' champion in 110 years when she won the title aged 16 years and nine months.

After bagging six Grand Slam titles and nine women's doubles titles, she retired at 22 after two ankle surgeries.

She returned in 2005 and climbed into the top 10 but was banned for two years in 2007 after testing positive for cocaine.

And now she is back again, just two months short of her 35th birthday, as arguably the best women's doubles player in tennis.

THE GUARDIAN