Instead the 22-year-old Swiss is devoting herself to perfecting her English and to finally enjoying the financial fruits of her prodigious talent.

"A return to competition is unimagineable. But there you go ... it is finished. Life goes on," the former world number one told French newspaper L'Equipe on Friday.

Hingis returned to the tour last August after undergoing ankle surgery in May but injury has continued to trouble her. She believes she will never be able to get fit enough to play at the highest level again.

"I have been at the top long enough to know exactly what that entails and I am now incapable of it," she said.

"When you have been number one for four years you cannot be happy with less. I have stopped training because my health doesn't allow me to do it any more, I don't play every day.

"When I play, I play for two hours but only once a day because of the pain in my feet."

She had been expected to play in the Australian Open in January but withdrew from the Grand Slam event in December.

"In my last two matches, in Moscow and Filderstadt, I was completely out of it, tired, incapable of holding my own.

"In November and December I tried to play again flat out with Myriam (Casanova) and Patti (Schnyder) but as soon as I started giving a little bit more it became too hard... impossible.

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"There is no question at all of envisaging a possible comeback. At least that is the situation right now," she added.

Finally free of the strict training regime which has ruled her life, Hingis is plunging herself into study and relishing the opportunity to explore other interests.

She is living in the village of Schindellegi, 30 minutes from the centre of Zurich, where she is attending college.

"At the moment my priority in life is no longer tennis but studying," Hingis says. "I want to get my English to such a high standard that I can get a job in, perhaps, marketing.

"The tennis has been an important part of my life but now another life is starting.

"I don't want anyone to feel sorry for me, I have a superb life even without sport and I am happy.

"I have no regrets at all. Tennis gave me so much -- a magnificent life. A new life starts, I am happy, so happy. How could I not be?

"I have money and I live in a country that I love... What more could I ask?"