Can ‘ace’ mom Kim Clijsters defend her 2009 U.S. Open title?
The U.S. Open 2010 is right around the corner. Rumours and gossips are flying in the air as to who is going to clinch it this time around. One cannot help but wonder as to what will become of the top seeded players in this year’s championships. Will the underdogs rise and pose a threat to the professionals or get knocked out in the first few rounds? Although there are players like Serena Williams in the fore to win the title, former world no. 1 Kim Clijsters may make an interesting comeback. Till date, the ace mom has bagged 37 Women’s Tennis Association singles titles along with 11 WTA doubles titles so far. Apart from that, she has picked up two singles titles in 2002 and 2003 in the WTA Tour Championships.
Popularly known as one of the very few players in the ATP as well as the WTA to ‘straddle’ on all sorts of surfaces, Kim Clijsters has taken part in the highest number of grand slam tournaments. Her wins came about at the Roland Garros, U.S. Open, Wimbledon Championships and the Australian Open from the year 1997 up till now. Clijsters is capable of producing beautiful aces and serves that her opponents find hard to return. In addition to that, her defensive technique is right on the top and she covers the court well.
By thrashing Canada’s Mary Pierce 6-3, 6-1 in straight sets prior to the 2005 U.S. Open Champion, Kim Clijsters communicated her retirement that instantly came into effect on the 6th of May, 2007. After tragically ending her relationship with Australian tennis player and fiancé, Lleyton Hewitt in October 2004, Clijsters tied the knot with American basketball player Brian Lynch in July, 2007. As Clijster’s retirement was based upon her starting a family life, she gave birth to a beautiful baby girl named Jada Ellie on the 27th of February 2008. Unexpectedly, on the 26th of March 2009, almost 2 years after her retirement, Kim openly conveyed her thoughts of returning for the WTA summer hard court season. She further went on to create history by being the first ever un-seeded ‘wild card’ to win the 2009 U.S. Open by outmanoeuvring Caroline Wozniacki, the first ever Danish player in history to make it to a grand slam final, 7-5, 6-3 in straight sets. “You can wake me up now - these last four weeks in America have been incredible.” explained Kim Clijsters after making one of the most legendary comebacks ever as far as tennis is concerned. Clijsters beat China’s Li Na 6 games to 2 in the first set and 6 games to 4 in the second set in the 2009 U.S. Open quarter-finals to face America’s own, Serena Williams in the semi-finals. Despite being seeded no. 2 and having previously won 3 U.S. Open singles titles, Serena Williams lost 6-4, 7-5 in two straight sets to Clijsters, after which, Clijsters went on to win the championship.
Kim Clijsters was the first ever mother to win a grand slam title since the 1980’s which came about in the year 2009. Till date, Kim Clijsters has participated in the U.S. Open on seven occasions; however, she currently has a paltry 2 titles to her name. The 2005 U.S. Open win was of utmost importance to Kim as one of her flaws which she seems to have overcome was letting her nerves get to her. After the win, Clijsters seems to have gotten a hold of her emotions. In spite of generating some good serves, Kim tends to occasionally serve in a hasty manner and ends up producing double faults, which would definitely count as one of her few flaws. She is still however, one of the favourites, known to keep her cool and not blow her top off during games. This is primarily why her associates have voted her on seven times for the Karen Krantzcke Sportsmanship Award. As far as the ‘Clijsters-Henin’ rivalry is concerned, having faced Justine Henin on 25 occasions, Kim has had the upper hand over her fellow country-woman with 13-12 in her favour despite Henin’s impressive statistics.
Conclusively, coming from a family of athletes, the 6-time ‘Belgian Sportswoman of the year’ award winner Kim Clijsters is by far one of the classiest players at present. Clearly, the sportsperson has more than just a ‘little’ potential. With two U.S. Open Singles titles already to her name with remarkable statistics and after outdoing herself the U.S. Open 2009; one has great expectations from the Belgian player for the 2010 U.S. Open.
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