By Etienne Stekelenburg
September 25 2002

State Supreme Court Justice Sherry Klein Heitler stated that, because of the similar case that is pending in Milan Italy, New York is the wrong place to fight a court case against Tacchini Martina Hingis and Tacchini had signed a five-year endorsement contract in 1996; the Swiss tennis star was paid $ 5.6 million. According to the deal Martina also had to wear other Tacchini sportswear than shoes during the matches.

Martina Hingis said that she started to suffer from a severe foot injury during the US Open in 1998. The reason, as Hingis puts it, was due to defective shoes of the Tacchini brand, the shoes were ‘unsuitable for competition’. She also claimed that the injury did hurt her career at that point.

Tacchini had sued Martina Hingis in 1999 for breach of contract and not wearing Tacchini sportswear during a tennis match. A counter sued was filed by Hingis in Milan on the same grounds as the New York one that was dismissed on Tuesday. Therefore the New York judge didn’t want two of the same lawsuits and granted Tacchini’s motion to dismiss. ‘It would be unjust, unfair and inconvenient to require the defendant to answer here as well’