Comeback queen Kim Clijsters marks year since return
A year ago Kim Clijsters arrived in Cincinnati to re-launch a tennis career that she’d ended, citing constant battles with injury as the reason for hanging up her racquet, more than two years previously.
There were few expectations that the former world No. 1 would immediately take the world by storm after an extended hiatus that had seen her marry and become a mum to daughter Jada, but Clijsters didn’t have to wait long for victory.
Twelfth seed Marion Bartoli was the first to feel the full force of Clijsters mark II, and by the end of the tournament three top-20 ranked players had succumbed to the Belgian, with Patty Schnyder and Svetlana Kuznetsova following suit as the wildcard marched into the quarter-finals, where then world No. 1 Dinara Safina halted her charge.
What happened next was tennis’ feel good story of 2009, as in just the third tournament of her return – which just happened to be the US Open – Clijsters defeated both Venus and Serena Williams on her way to the final, where she duly claimed victory over the teenaged Caroline Wozniacki and with it the second Grand Slam, and US Open, title of her career.
Cue Clijsters’ centre court celebrations with the trophy, husband Brian Lynch and 18-month-old Jada, the pictures of which were beamed across the world and plastered across the sports pages of countless newspapers.
The 27-year-old hasn’t quite reached the same heights in 2010, crashing out 6-0, 6-1 to Nadia Petrova in the third round of the Australian Open; missing the French Open with a foot injury; and losing to eventual runner-up Vera Zvonareva in the Wimbledon quarters. Along the way, Clijsters has claimed titles at Brisbane and Miami and returned to the top 10.
Now Clijsters returns to the Western & Southern Financial Group Women’s Open as the world No. 7 and the tournament’s fourth seed.
And first up for the US Open champion is last year’s beaten finalist Safina, who has slipped to a ranking of world No. 35 after a season that has been marred by back problems.
The second-round match (Clijsters has a first-round bye) will be their first meeting since last year’s Cincinnati quarter-final, and one can’t help but think that this time the result will be different.
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