Kim Clijsters beats Caroline Wozniacki to WTA Championships title
Belgian returnee Kim Clijsters added a third WTA Championships title to her list of achievements on Sunday, 31 October, overcoming Danish world number one Caroline Wozniacki 6–3 5–7 6–3 in Doha.
It was Clijsters' fifth and final title of the 2010 season, during which she also won the US Open, the Brisbane International, the Miami Masters and the Cincinnati Masters
"I'm kind of relieved because it seemed like [the match] would never end," said Clijsters, who returned to the ATP Tour in 2009 after retiring midway through the 2007 season. "It was just a great battle,
great fitness and I think we showed the crowd some great women's tennis."
Offensive opening from Clijsters
Clijsters charged at Wozniacki from the start of the match. The first game lasted for eight minutes before the Belgian broke Wozniacki's serve. The world number one managed to come back to 2–2, but Clijsters
seemed to be the more determined of the two early on.
As Wozniacki's serve failed her, Clijsters broke twice to go 5–2 up, finishing the set off by holding her serve.
Clijsters earned a 3–1 lead at the start of the second set and seemed to be heading for a two-set victory before an unexpected double fault and some sloppy hitting let the Dane draw level at 4–4.
The world number three then squandered two break points at 5–4, allowing Wozniacki to hold and then break to go up 6–5. The Dane then held her serve to let herself back into the game.
But Clijsters' forceful baseline strokes from the first set returned at the start of the final set. While both players broke early on, it was the Belgian who got the better of her opponent, landing hard
forehands to go up 4–2.
At 5–3, Wozniacki had three break points, but Clijsters managed to defend all of them before the Dane failed to return a serve on Clijsters' second match point.
Clijsters: Wozniacki will win Grand Slam
Wozniacki failed to win her first significant title in her second match against Clijsters and her last appearance of the season.
Despite the world number one's lack of noteworthy titles, Clijsters backed her opponent to win a Grand Slam title in 2011.
"She will win a Grand Slam. She is too good of a player not to," the 27-year-old said. "She's young, she's number one, she just has to keep working the way that she has been working. She's been doing really
good things, and the good things will keep coming then."
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