Kim Clijsters still has “good tennis in me” on the second retirement

After seven years away from the sport, Kim Clijsters announced her much-publicized return to professional tennis in September.

It wasn’t exactly the return year he envisioned.

Yet despite the unprecedented and unpredictable circumstances of the 2020 season, he has somehow already won a title. After three grueling weeks of play at Greenbrier Resort in West Virginia, she and her New York Empire teammates hoisted the King Trophy by clinching the World Team Tennis Championship earlier this month.

Not only that, the 37-year-old recorded victories over reigning Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin, 2017 US Open winner Sloane Stephens and Olympic gold medalist Monica Puig during the tournament run.

“I am really happy to see her return to the pitch healthy and play well”, Kenin, che he grew up idolizing the Belgian star said after the game. “I’m really happy she’s back. It shows that no matter what age you are, you can always come back and do what you do best. She’s in great shape and plays really well.”

The former world number 1 was sidelined during the team’s final matches due to an abdominal strain, which he says is not serious, but was instrumental in the team’s early part of the season and appreciated his role as manager. and cheerleader (e occasionally ball girl) during title lengthening.

Considering Clijsters only recorded two official matches in her comeback before the tour was suspended due to the coronavirus pandemic in March before the BNP Paribas Open, it makes what she was able to do this summer even more impressive. She admits it was odd to start getting into the thick of things just to have everything closed indefinitely, but she didn’t put off the four-time senior champion and mother of three.

“When Indian Wells arrived, I was really starting to hit the ball well, and I felt like I was getting to where I wanted to be on the pitch,” he said recently. “I was thinking, ‘This is the kind of tennis I want to play’ and I was looking forward to playing there. But then of course it didn’t happen. A lot of people started asking me, ‘Are you going to retire? Again with all of this. in progress? ‘

“But the fact is, I don’t mind going home, training and being home with the kids. I was wondering how I would feel, how I would stay motivated, but I stayed very busy and overall my attention was pretty good, surprisingly too. It was a challenge, but I like it. I’ve always loved playing tennis, and that hasn’t changed. “

Clijsters has toyed with the idea of ​​returning over the years, but never seriously. She first walked away from the game in 2007, at the age of 23, following a series of injuries.

During her hiatus, she got married to former professional basketball player Brian Lynch and gave birth to her daughter, Jada. After two years of absence, she returned to the tour more invigorated than ever. In just the third event of her comeback, she won the US Open, becoming the first unseeded woman to win the tournament and the first mother to win a major from Evonne Goolagong Cawley in 1980. She went on to win again in New York. in 2010, in addition to claiming the title at the Australian Open in 2011, but retired again in 2012, saying that non-tennis obligations often became too overwhelming and she felt mired with interviews, appearances and sponsorship obligations.

But with the youngest son approaching school age, it started to seem more doable. His desire to play competitively again grew to a point where he decided he could no longer fight her. His love of the game had never wavered, he insisted, and he believed he still had what it takes to play against the best in the world. After previously retiring and not retiring once, she recognized the feeling.

This time, he insists, it will be different. Now there will be a balance and she feels confident to say no and reject the things she doesn’t want to do. Her children, who are now 12, 6 and 3 years old, remain her priority and she works in her education at their own schedules. And if he needs advice on how to try and do it all, he has a few helpful collaborators to turn to: former rival and 23-time Grand Slam winner Serena Williams and two-time Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka are two of a handful. . of moms currently playing on tour.

Clijsters, who has worked as a commentator for the past few years, said earlier that watching them motivated her, and it’s clear the feeling is mutual. After Clijsters’ first game in February – a defeat to Garbine Muguruza in Dubai – Williams tweeted: “Seriously, so so proud of Kim Clijsters. You inspire me. Wow. Congratulations on doing something great.”

Seriously, so so proud of Kim Clijsters. You inspire me. Wow. Wow, congratulations, you did something great.

– Serena Williams (@serenawilliams) February 18, 2020

Clijsters had planned to play a partial program for 2020 and had never intended to do all – or even most – of the world tour, week by week of the tour.

Obviously, in the end the season, or what’s left of it, has been decided for her, but she can’t wait to play next time at the Western & Southern Open at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Queens. The tournament, normally played in Cincinnati, will be the first of two events to be held in the crowd-free and heavily registered bubble in New York, with the US Open starting at the end of the month. Clijsters, a three-time former Grand Slam champion, secured a wild card for both tournaments.

“I’m excited to come to New York and play,” he said. “I haven’t played a full single [at WTT] or double full, but I played a lot of sets and felt good. Of course, playing an official tournament again is the next step. It’s going to be weird without fans, and I’ve always enjoyed playing in front of a crowd – especially those night games at the US Open where there’s such a different energy – but it’s still going to be a tennis match and you’ll still have your coach and someone there. to support you “.

“If I didn’t feel like it, or if I didn’t have the certainty of still being able to play good tennis, then I would never have started this”.

Kim Clijsters

One of the most popular players on the tour, both by fans and her peers, Clijsters’ efforts in New York will be unmissable matches, but she isn’t thinking about it. Already enshrined in the Hall of Fame, she says she has nothing to prove to anyone this time around. That is, except herself.

“This is not for the outside; this is really for me,” he said. “It’s more of a push inside me, where I know where I want to go. And that’s the motivation for it, because I feel like I can still play really good tennis. This is what gave me the push to go for If not. if I wanted to, or if I wasn’t sure that I could still play good tennis, then I would never have started this.

“I know I still have some good tennis inside me.”