Andre Agassi, after winning the Tennis Masters Series in Rome, abruptly pulls out of Hamburg. Venus Williams, complaining of a chronic sore wrist, abruptly pulls out of the Italian Open. Martina Hingis, who has already pulled out of Berlin and Rome, may be forced to retire because of joint damage to her feet, left knee and hip, according to one of her doctors.

	Martina Hingis has made 29 consecutive Grand Slam apearances.

All of this unsettling news came whistling onto the tennis scene within the last week but, as usual, first impressions are of the worst-case scenario kind. Reality often is something far less dramatic. On Friday, the Women's Tennis Association announced that Martina Hingis would have surgery to repair one torn and two loose ligaments in her left ankle. That will keep her out of the French Open and most likely Wimbledon, as well.

"I am obviously very disappointed that I will be unable to play in Paris," Hingis said. "However, I am hopeful that the surgery on Monday will go well and that I can look forward to a speedy recovery. I will just need some time to rest and start a rehabilitation program."

And people wonder why tennis can't seem to crack America's mainstream, meat-and-potatoes sports lineup. If the limping, gimping Shaquille O'Neal was a tennis player, they would have written his obituary by now.

Agassi, it turns out, is just a little tired after playing all those matches in Rome. At the age of 32, he wants to be rested for the French Open, where he'll be going for his eighth Grand Slam singles title. Williams could have played in the Italian, but she, too, wants to be ready for the French. Her sister, Serena, says she'll be there despite the "injury."

With Hingis' injury now diagnosed, it's time to disregard all those global headlines on Hingis -- "Doctor: Injured Hingis May Have to Quit." Dr. Heinz Buehlmann got a little ahead (or full) of himself in his interview with Swiss radio on Wednesday. "We cannot yet say how sensible it would be for her to continue her career," the good doctor intoned on Radio 24, "or whether an end to it would be advisable on medical grounds."

Omnious, eh? On Friday, the WTA downplayed the doctor's prediction.

"At this stage any discussion about this being a career-threatening injury is premature and unwarranted," the WTA stated in a press release.

In this day when they routinely transplant hearts, livers and kidneys, when Tommy John surgery can rescue the careers of aging pitchers, rest assured Hingis -- who is only 21 -- will live to play again.

For sure Hingis, unlike Agassi and Williams, will miss the French Open -- her first Grand Slam absence in eight years, ending a streak of 29 straight. It is a logical turn of events, given the succession of bizarre events for Hingis in the past year. She already has weathered the trial of her stalker in Miami and filed a $40 million lawsuit against Italian sportswear manufacturer Sergio Tacchini, claiming she had been given defective shoes. On the court, she missed five weeks of last summer with a back injury, then two more with a foot injury. In October, she tore three ligaments in her right ankle, ending her season with surgery.

	After winning the Tennis Masters Series in Rome without dropping a set, Andre Agassi took a break.

Her mother and coach, Melanie Molitor, couldn't resist a shot at Sergio Tacchini earlier this week, reminding the Swiss media that she blamed her daughter's injuries on the shoes. In 1999, Hingis was dropped by the company, claiming she breached her five-year contract by not wearing its shoes. The lawsuit was filed in New York but a judge is currently deciding whether the trial will occur there or in Italy, the venue of choice for the Tacchini lawyers.

While Hingis has won few friends on the WTA Tour with her typically tactless comments -- she memorably called Amelie Mauresmo "half a man" -- you have to admire her consistency.

She was the world's best player from 1997-2000, leaping through the window of opportunity before the Williams sisters arrived in full flower. Between 1997-99, she won five of nine women's Grand Slam singles titles -- her only five to date. She was ranked No. 1 as recently as 2000, but the effort to maintain that position began to wear on her.

Still, despite her injuries last year, Hingis had a trademark quick start this year. She was 26-5 with tournament victories in Sydney and Tokyo and final appearances at the Australian Open and Indian Wells. Hingis has now appeared in six consecutive Australian Open finals, tying Evonne Goolagong Cawley's Open Era record, which underlines her tenacity. Believe it or not, only Steffi Graf, Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert have spent more time in the No. 1 spot than Hingis' 209 weeks.

Hingis won the first set from Capriati and led in the second but suffered a monumental collapse and lost four match points and later, quite possibly, the most disappointing match of her career. At 5-foot-7, 130 pounds, she can't match strokes with Capriati and the Williams sisters, but her severely angled shots, baseline intuition and fierce focus make her better than almost everyone else. Hingis has the trophies (40 titles) and the Swiss bank account ($17 million in prize money). Now, she has the other commodity that everyone desperately seeks: leisure time.

At 21, she could be looking at her first summer off since she began playing tennis tournaments, at the age of 4. She can rehab. She can ride her horses, chase the boys that have become an increasingly large part of her life. And the tennis publications will openly question whether she has the resolve to return to the top, the old will to win.

Naturally, reports of her tennis demise will be greatly exaggerated.

Greg Garber is a senior writer for ESPN.com