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Kim Clijsters

Country (sports)	Belgium
Residence	Bree, Belgium
Height	1.74 m (5 ft 8+1⁄2 in)
Turned pro	August 17, 1997
Retired	May 6, 2007
Plays	Right; Two-handed backhand
Prize money	US$14,764,296
Singles
Career record	427–104
Career titles	34 WTA (13th in overall rankings), 3 ITF
Highest ranking	No. 1 (August 11, 2003)
Grand Slam singles results
Australian Open	F (2004)
French Open	F (2001, 2003)
Wimbledon	SF (2003, 2006)
US Open	W (2005)
Other tournaments
Tour Finals	W (2002, 2003)
Doubles
Career record	129–50
Career titles	11 WTA, 3 ITF
Highest ranking	No. 1 (August 4, 2003)
Grand Slam doubles results
Australian Open	QF (2003)
French Open	W (2003)
Wimbledon	W (2003)
US Open	QF (2002)
Last updated on: May 7, 2007.

Kim Antonie Lode Clijsters (IPA: [kɪm klɛistərs], listen; born June 8, 1983 in Bilzen, Limburg) is a retired Belgian tennis player. She is a former World No. 1 ranked player in singles and in doubles.

During her professional career, Clijsters won 34 WTA singles titles and 11 WTA doubles titles. She won the US Open singles title in 2005 and the WTA Tour Championships singles title in 2002 and 2003. In doubles, she won the French Open and Wimbledon titles in 2003. Clijsters was twice a singles runner-up at the French Open and a one-time runner-up at the Australian Open, also reaching two Wimbledon singles semifinals. She announced her retirement with immediate effect on May 6, 2007.

Playing style

Clijsters, known as Aussie Kim, Kim Kong, Killing Kim, or Kim Possible to many fans, is recognized for her deep, powerful, well-placed groundstrokes, as well as her court-wide defense, characterized by speed and athleticism. Clijsters, along with Jelena Jankovic, is among the few tennis players on either the ATP or WTA tours who can slide (known as the straddle) on all surfaces. After being defeated by Clijsters in the 2005 Nasdaq-100 Open, Maria Sharapova implied that Clijsters's strength lies in how she always forces her opponent to hit an extra shot, that "you just have to expect that she's going to get every ball back".

Family life

Kim Antonie Lode Clijsters was born on June 8, 1983, in Bilzen, in the Flemish Region of Belgium. She is the daughter of a successful football player, Lei Clijsters, and a national gymnastics champion, Els Vandecaetsbeek. Clijsters claims to have inherited footballer's legs from her father and a gymnast's flexibility from her mother. Clijsters' younger sister Elke finished 2002 as the ITF World Junior Doubles champion and retired in 2004 after back injuries.

In November 2003, Clijsters announced her engagement to Australian tennis player Lleyton Hewitt, but their relationship ended in October 2004.

In October 2006, Clijsters announced her engagement to American basketball player Brian Lynch, who is based in Clijsters's hometown of Bree. In an interview with "Sportweekend," Clijsters stated that she was retiring to start a family. Clijsters and Lynch married secretly on July 13, 2007, at 6:00 in the morning at the Bree city hall. She was married by the mayor, with sister Elke Clijsters, Lynch's brother Pat Lynch, and both families' parents present.

Clijsters gave birth to a daughter on February 27, 2008, at 1:35 PM at the Vesaliushospital in Tongeren, Belgium. The girl, Jada Ellie, weighed 3.035 kg and measured 51 cm. Clijsters's mother gave birth to a son, Zeth, after Jada Ellie was born.

Tennis career

Clijsters was an accomplished junior player. In singles, she finished as runner-up in the 1998 Wimbledon junior event, placing 11th in the year-end singles ranking. In the same year in doubles, Clijsters won the French Open title with Jelena Dokić, and the US Open with Eva Dyrberg, ending the season as number four in the International Tennis Federation junior doubles world ranking.

In 1999, Clijsters made her breakthrough professionally. Playing through the qualifying rounds, she made it through the main draw of Wimbledon, wherein she defeated tenth ranked Amanda Coetzer en route to the fourth round, where Clijsters lost to her childhood idol Steffi Graf. Later that summer, Clijsters reached the third round of the US Open, losing to eventual champion Serena Williams after serving for the match. In the autumn, Clijsters won her first Women's Tennis Association (WTA) singles title at Luxembourg. She followed up with her first WTA doubles title at Bratislava, partnering Laurence Courtois.

Clijsters climbed up the rankings over the next couple of years. In 2001, she reached her first Grand Slam final at the French Open, where she lost to Jennifer Capriati 12–10 in the third set. Her next important breakthrough came at the end of 2002, when she won the year-end WTA Tour Championship in Los Angeles, defeating top ranked Serena Williams in the final, 7–5 6–3. During that time, Serena was considered to be the most dominant player, and being defeated in straight sets by an 18-year old was an incredible shock. On her way to the final, she also beat fourth ranked Justine Henin and second ranked Venus Williams (when Williams retired).

Clijsters had her career-best season in 2003. She won nine singles tournaments and seven doubles titles that year, including the French Open and Wimbledon. She successfully defended her WTA Tour Championships title and reached two Grand Slam finals (French Open and US Open), losing both to Henin. She reached the semis at the Australian Open and Wimbledon, showing incredible consistency. With the exception of her losses in the final, one memory that will be remembered is her loss to Serena Williams at the 03 Aussie Open semis. Serena had won her last 26 Grand Slam matches (as well as winning the last three Grand Slams), and after stunning her in straight sets at the Year-End Championships, she seemed well on her way for another upset victory as she lead 6–4, 3–6, 5–1. However, an incredibly resilient Williams fought off two match points, and ran off six straight games to secure a spot in the final, and ending up achieving the "Serena Slam".

On August 11, 2003, Clijsters attained the top ranking, holding the spot for 12 non-consecutive weeks before losing it later in the year to Henin. She is the first woman to be ranked number one on the computer rankings without winning a Grand Slam title.

Clijsters started 2004 by reaching her fourth career Grand Slam final at the Australian Open, where she lost once more to Henin. She then won two consecutive titles in Paris and Antwerp. While defending her Tier I title at Indian Wells, however, Clijsters began to have problems with her wrist, eventually requiring surgery and forcing her to withdraw from most tournaments. She attempted a comeback towards the end of the season, winning several matches, before reaggravating the injury.

2005

In February 2005, after almost a year of inactivity caused by injuries, she made her return to the WTA tour by participating in her home country tournament at Antwerp, losing to Venus Williams in a quarterfinal. She then completed her comeback to the top echelon of women's tennis when she won, as an unseeded entry, 14 straight matches to claim two Tier I titles (Indian Wells and Miami) in March. During that run, Clijsters defeated five of the world's top six players.

Clijsters finally won a Grand Slam singles title at the US Open. It was her first victory after reaching four Grand Slam finals previously. In the tournament, Clijsters defeated Mary Pierce 6–3, 6–1 in the final. Along the way, she defeated 10th seeded Venus Williams and top seeded Maria Sharapova. By winning the US Open Series—a string of tournaments leading to the Grand Slam—Clijsters received a 100 percent bonus to the U.S. $1.1 million in prize money at the US Open. Her U.S. $2.2 million paycheck was the largest payday in women's sports history.

On September 15, within days after her US Open victory, it was announced that the cooperation between Clijsters and her coach, Marc Dehous, would come to an end. Dehous thought that it was time to do something else.

At the 2005 WTA Tour Championships, Clijsters was eliminated after only two matches. She lost her first match to Mary Pierce, 6–1, 4–6, 7–6. Amélie Mauresmo defeated her in the second match, 6–3, 7–6. Clijsters said in interviews that her defeats were due to fatigue and maybe jet lag, having had a relatively short time to adjust and acclimatize before the tournament began. Although she won her third match in the round-robin tournament against Elena Dementieva, 6–2 6–3, it was considered a dead rubber.

Overall, she won nine singles events in 2005, her last one being at the Gaz de France Stars in Hasselt. She ended the year ranked No. 2.

2006

Clijsters started her 2006 season by winning an exhibition tournament, the Watson Water Challenge, in Hong Kong. On her way to the title she defeated Jie Zheng, Elena Dementieva, and top ranked Lindsay Davenport.

Clijsters then withdrew from her semifinal match at the WTA tournament in Sydney, citing a left hip muscle strain.

At the 2006 Australian Open, Clijsters defeated former champion Martina Hingis, 6–3, 2–6, 6–4 in a quarterfinal, before retiring from a semifinal match with Amélie Mauresmo. Despite the loss, the ranking points she accumulated were enough to regain the world number one spot, a position she last held on November 9, 2003. She was the first tennis player, male or female, to rise from outside the Top 100 (No. 134) to No. 1 in less than year. Clijsters' loss to Mauresmo in the Australian Open semifinals was due to an ankle injury. Although she had been expected to miss at least eight weeks to recover, Clijsters returned two weeks later at the Proximus Diamond Games in Antwerp. She lost the final of that tournament to Mauresmo in three sets.

Clijsters won her first title of the year at a clay court event in Warsaw, defeating Svetlana Kuznetsova in the final 7–5, 6–2. In May, Clijsters competed at the French Open. She did not lose a set on her way to the semifinals. In a quarterfinal, she once again defeated Hingis, 7–6, 6–1. However, she lost to Justine Henin in a semifinal 6–3, 6–2, on her 23rd birthday.

She was seeded second going into Wimbledon but was again eliminated in the semifinals by Henin.

Clijsters collected her second title of the year as the top seed in Stanford, defeating Patty Schnyder in the final 6–4, 6–2. Clijsters then reached the final in San Diego, falling to second-seeded Maria Sharapova 7–5, 7–5. This was her first loss to Sharapova in five career meetings.

On August 16, after receiving a first round bye at the 2006 Rogers Cup in Montreal, Clijsters faced Canadian Stéphanie Dubois in the second round. Having won the first set 6–1 and trailing 2–3 in the second set, Clijsters slipped and fell on her left wrist and was forced to retire from the match. On August 18, 2006, Clijsters announced on her official website that the condition of her wrist was worse than she had expected and that she would be unable to compete in the 2006 US Open to defend her title. She also missed the Fed Cup final against Italy, which Italy won 3–2.

At the Gaz de France Stars, her first tournament in more than two months, Clijsters successfully defended her title by beating qualifier Kaia Kanepi 6–3, 3–6, 6–4 in the final. En route to the final, Clijsters defeated Anne Kremer (6–3, 6–2), Martina Müller (6–3, 6–2), Sandra Klösel (6–1, 6–0) and Vera Zvonareva (6–4, 3–6, 6–4).

At the year-ending WTA Tour Championships, Clijsters lost a semifinal to Amélie Mauresmo 6–2, 3–6, 6–3, after defeating Dementieva and Kuznetsova and losing to Sharapova in the round robin phase of the tournament.

2007

Clijsters started her final season on the tour by winning an exhibition tournament, the Watson Water Challenge, in Hong Kong. On her way to the title, she defeated Jie Zheng, Patty Schnyder, and top ranked Maria Sharapova.

Clijsters then won the Medibank International tournament in Sydney, Australia, defeating Jelena Janković in the final 4–6, 7–6(1), 6–4 after being down a match point.

At the 2007 Australian Open, the fourth seeded Clijsters defeated sixth seeded Martina Hingis in a quarterfinal match. However, she lost to Sharapova in a semifinal 6–4, 6–2.

She played her last tournament in Belgium at the Proximus Diamond Games in Antwerp, where she lost to Amelie Mauresmo in the final 6–4, 7–6(4). At the Sony Ericsson Open in Key Biscayne, Florida, Clijsters lost in the fourth round to Li Na 4–6, 6–4, 6–2.

In May, she failed to defend her 2006 title in Warsaw, losing in the second round to Julia Vakulenko 7–6(3), 6–3. This was Clijsters's last professional match.

On May 6, 2007, citing injuries, Clijsters announced on her official website that she was retiring from professional tennis immediately, concluding a career highlighted by her 2005 US Open singles title.

Coaches

• 1992-1996: Bart Van Kerckhove
• 1996-2002: Carl Maes
• 2002-2005: Marc Dehous

Records

2003

• Clijsters became not only the first Belgian — man or woman — to be ranked World No. 1, but also did it without winning a Grand Slam tournament. Clijsters also is one of the few women to be World No. 1 in both singles and doubles.

• Clijsters compiled a 90–12 singles record. Her singles win total was the highest single-season total by any woman since 1982. Clijsters was the first woman to play more than 100 singles matches in a year since 1974.

2005

• By winning in Indian Wells, California, Clijsters became the lowest ranked player (World No. 133) ever to win a Tier I event. In the final, she beat top ranked Lindsay Davenport 6–4, 4–6, 6–2. She was the lowest ranked player to defeat a reigning World No. 1 since 1975, a record that was broken when Julie Coin defeated Ana Ivanovic at the 2008 US Open.

• In Key Biscayne, Florida, Clijsters became only the second player (the first being Steffi Graf in 1995 and 1996) to win the Indian Wells-Key Biscayne double. En route to victory, she beat the sixth (Anastasia Myskina), fifth (Elena Dementieva), second (Amélie Mauresmo), and third (Maria Sharapova) seeds in consecutive matches. She was the first unseeded winner of the tournament and did not lose a set in the tournament.

• Following Clijsters's victory in the US Open Series and the subsequent US Open, she collected US$2.2 million in prize money, the largest paycheck in women's sports history. To that date, she held a North American hardcourt win-loss record of 36–1, the most matches ever won on that surface during a season.

• Clijsters had a 22-match winning streak from August to October. During the streak, she won tournaments in Los Angeles, Toronto, and Luxembourg and the US Open.

2006

• In returning to the World No. 1 ranking after the Australian Open in January, Clijsters broke a rankings record. She was ranked as low as World No. 134 in March 2005, so her return to the top spot in a ten-month span was the fastest and biggest leap in women's tennis history.

Awards

Clijsters is considered by her peers as one of the most likeable players on tour. This, combined with her accomplishments on court, has earned her numerous citations:

Grand Slam singles finals

Wins (1)

Year	Championship	Opponent in Final	Score in Final
2005	US Open	Mary Pierce	6–3, 6–1

Runner-ups (4)

Year	Championship	Opponent in Final	Score in Final
2001	French Open	Jennifer Capriati	1–6, 6–4, 12–10
2003	French Open (2nd)	Justine Henin	6–0, 6–4
2003	US Open	Justine Henin	7–5, 6–1
2004	Australian Open	Justine Henin	6–3, 4–6, 6–3

WTA Tour titles (45)

Singles wins (34)

No.	Date	Tournament Name	Location	Surface	Opponent in Final	Score in Final
1.	September 20, 1999	SEAT Open (1)	Luxembourg City, Luxembourg	Carpet	Dominique Monami	6–2, 6–2
2.	January 10, 2000	Tasmanian International	Hobart, Australia	Hard	Chanda Rubin	2–6, 6–2, 6–2
3.	October 30, 2000	Sparkassen Cup (1)	Leipzig, Germany	Carpet	Elena Likhovtseva	7–6(6), 4–6, 6–4
4.	July 23, 2001	Bank of the West Classic (1)	Stanford, California, U.S.	Hard	Lindsay Davenport	6–4, 6–7(5), 6–1
5.	September 24, 2001	Sparkassen Cup (2)	Leipzig, Germany	Carpet	Magdalena Maleeva	6–1, 6–1
6.	October 22, 2001	SEAT Open (2)	Luxembourg City, Luxembourg	Hard	Lisa Raymond	6–2, 6–2
7.	April 29, 2002	Betty Barclay Cup	Hamburg, Germany	Clay	Venus Williams	1–6, 6–3, 6–4
8.	October 7, 2002	Porsche Tennis Grand Prix (1)	Filderstadt, Germany	Hard	Daniela Hantuchová	4–6, 6–3, 6–4
9.	October 21, 2002	SEAT Open (3)	Luxembourg City, Luxembourg	Hard	Magdalena Maleeva	6–1, 6–2
10.	November 4, 2002	Home Depot Championships (1)	Los Angeles	Carpet	Serena Williams	7–5, 6–3
11.	January 6, 2003	adidas International (1)	Sydney, Australia	Hard	Lindsay Davenport	6–4, 6–3
12.	March 3, 2003	Pacific Life Open (1)	Indian Wells, California, U.S.	Hard	Lindsay Davenport	6–4, 7–5
13.	May 12, 2003	Telecom Italia Masters	Rome	Clay	Amélie Mauresmo	3–6, 7–6(3), 6–0
14.	June 16, 2003	Ordina Open	's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands	Grass	Justine Henin	6-7(4), 3–0 retired
15.	July 21, 2003	Bank of the West Classic (2)	Stanford, California, U.S.	Hard	Jennifer Capriati	4–6, 6–4, 6–2
16.	August 4, 2003	JPMorgan Chase Open (1)	Los Angeles	Hard	Lindsay Davenport	6–1, 3–6, 6–1
17.	October 6, 2003	Porsche Tennis Grand Prix (2)	Filderstadt, Germany	Hard	Justine Henin	5–7, 6–4, 6–2
18.	October 20, 2003	SEAT Open (4)	Luxembourg City, Luxembourg	Hard	Chanda Rubin	6–2, 7–5
19.	November 3, 2003	WTA Tour Championships (2)	Los Angeles	Hard	Amélie Mauresmo	6–2, 6–0
20.	February 9, 2004	Open Gaz de France	Paris	Carpet	Mary Pierce	6–2, 6–1
21.	February 16, 2004	Proximus Diamond Games	Antwerp, Belgium	Carpet	Silvia Farina Elia	6–3, 6–0
22.	March 7, 2005	Pacific Life Open (2)	Indian Wells, California, U.S.	Hard	Lindsay Davenport	6–4, 4–6, 6–2
23.	March 23, 2005	NASDAQ-100 Open	Key Biscayne, Florida, U.S.	Hard	Maria Sharapova	6–3, 7–5
24.	June 13, 2005	Hastings Direct International Championships	Eastbourne, United Kingdom	Grass	Vera Douchevina	7–5, 6–0
25.	August 1, 2005	Bank of the West Classic (3)	Stanford, California, U.S.	Hard	Venus Williams	7–5, 6–2
26.	August 8, 2005	JPMorgan Chase Open (2)	Los Angeles	Hard	Daniela Hantuchová	6–4, 6–1
27.	August 15, 2005	Rogers Cup	Toronto, Canada	Hard	Justine Henin	7–5, 6–1
28.	September 10, 2005	US Open	New York City	Hard	Mary Pierce	6–3, 6–1
29.	October 2, 2005	FORTIS Championships (5)	Luxembourg City, Luxembourg	Hard	Anna-Lena Grönefeld	6–2, 6–4
30.	October 30, 2005	Gaz de France Stars (1)	Hasselt, Belgium	Hard	Francesca Schiavone	6–2, 6–3
31.	May 7, 2006	J&S Cup	Warsaw, Poland	Clay	Svetlana Kuznetsova	7–5, 6–2
32.	July 30, 2006	Bank of the West Classic (4)	Stanford, California, U.S.	Hard	Patty Schnyder	6–4, 6–2
33.	November 5, 2006	Gaz de France Stars (2)	Hasselt, Belgium	Hard	Kaia Kanepi	6–3, 3–6, 6–4
34.	January 12, 2007	Medibank International (2)	Sydney, Australia	Hard	Jelena Janković	4–6, 7–6(1), 6–4

Doubles wins (11)

No.	Date	Tournament	Partnering	Opponents in the final	Score
1.	October 27, 1999	Bratislava, Slovakia	Laurence Courtois	Olga Barabanschikova and Lilia Osterloh	6–2, 3–6, 7–5
2.	May 21, 2000	Antwerp, Belgium	Sabine Appelmans	Jennifer Hopkins and Petra Rampre	6–1, 6–1
3.	August 12, 2002	Los Angeles, U.S.	Jelena Dokić	Daniela Hantuchová and Ai Sugiyama	6–3, 6–3
4.	October 27, 2002	Luxembourg City, Luxembourg	Janette Husárová	Květa Peschke and Barbara Rittner	4–6, 6–3, 7–5
5.	January 12, 2003	Sydney, Australia	Ai Sugiyama	Conchita Martínez and Rennae Stubbs	6–3, 6–3
6.	February 16, 2003	Antwerp, Belgium	Ai Sugiyama	Nathalie Dechy and Emilie Loit	6–2, 6–0
7.	March 2, 2003	Scottdale, Arizona, U.S.	Ai Sugiyama	Lindsay Davenport and Lisa Raymond	6–1, 6–4
8.	June 8, 2003	French Open, Paris, France	Ai Sugiyama	Virginia Ruano Pascual and Paola Suárez	6–7, 6–2, 9–7
9.	July 6, 2003	Wimbledon, London, Britain	Ai Sugiyama	Virginia Ruano Pascual and Paola Suárez	6–4, 6–4
10.	August 3, 2003	San Diego, U.S.	Ai Sugiyama	Lindsay Davenport and Lisa Raymond	6–4, 7–5
11.	October 19, 2003	Zurich, Switzerland	Ai Sugiyama	Virginia Ruano Pascual and Paola Suárez	7–6, 6–2

WTA Tour runner-ups (27)

Singles (17)

Women's doubles (9)

Mixed doubles (1)

• 2000: Wimbledon (with Lleyton Hewitt)

Singles performance timeline

• A = did not participate in the tournament.
• SR = the ratio of the number of singles tournaments won to the number of those tournaments played.
• - = tournament either was not held or was not classified as a Tier I event on the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) tour at the time it was held.
• She won three qualifying matches to reach the main draw.
• She lost two round robin matches.
• She lost one round robin match in addition to the semifinal.
• She defaulted her third round match, which is a walkover and does not count as a loss on her official record.
• This tournament became a Tier I event on the WTA tour in 2004.
• She lost both a qualifying match and a quarterfinal match at the 1999 tournament in Antwerp.
• She defaulted her 2001 semifinal match in New Haven, which is a walkover and does not count as a loss on her official record.
• Her win-loss record includes all matches listed on the WTA website, including challenger and Fed Cup matches.

WTA Tour career earnings

Notable matches

• 2001 French Open final: lost to Jennifer Capriati 1–6, 6–4, 12–10. The two-hour, 21-minute match featured the longest third set in a French Open women's final. Clijsters was four times within two points of winning before Capriati prevailed.
• 2002 WTA Tour Championships final: defeated Serena Williams for the first time in her career, 7–5, 6–3. This was only the fifth defeat of the year for Williams and snapped her 18-match winning streak. In her run to the finals, Clijsters also defeated Venus Williams, becoming just the fourth player to beat both of the Williams sisters in the same event. She also equaled the event's record for the fewest games dropped.
• 2003 Australian Open semifinal: lost to Serena Williams 4–6, 6–3, 7–5. Clijsters led 5–1 in the third set (and held a match point at 5–2) before Williams, who was playing with an injured foot, took the match. She went on to defeat her older sister Venus in the final, winning her fourth consecutive Grand Slam singles title.
• 2003 Italian Open final: defeated Amélie Mauresmo 3–6, 7–6(3), 6–0. After defeating Capriati and Serena Williams on her way to the final, Mauresmo led 6–5 in the second set and served for the championship. Clijsters, two points away from defeat, won the set in a tiebreak before cruising through the last set.
• 2003 French Open final: lost to Justine Henin 6–0, 6–4. Clijsters appeared nervous during the first half of the match and was extremely erratic. Commentators speculated that she may have felt nervous about playing in a high profile match against someone she had known since childhood.
• 2003 Los Angeles final: defeated Lindsay Davenport 6–1, 3–6, 6–1 for the fourth consecutive time. By winning her sixth title of the year, Clijsters gained enough points to overtake Serena Williams and claim the top spot in women's tennis, becoming the 12th player to do so and the first one to claim the spot without winning a Grand Slam title.
• 2003 Filderstadt final: defeated Henin 5–7, 6–4, 6–2. With the World No. 1 ranking at stake, Clijsters rallied from a set down to beat her compatriot. The match marked only the eighth time that the top two players battled for the top ranking. This was also Clijsters's second victory against Henin in their last seven meetings. (The first came when Henin retired during their match in 's-Hertogenbosch.)
• 2003 US Open final: lost to Henin 7–5, 6–1. Clijsters was considered the favorite going into the match because Henin had played a marathon match against Capriati until 1:00 a.m. the previous night and required intravenous treatment for dehydration.
• 2003 WTA Tour Championships semifinal: defeated Capriati 4–6, 6–3, 6–0. While leading 6–4, 3–2, Capriati took an injury break, but after play resumed, she never regained her form. Clijsters won the next 10 games to claim victory and reached her second WTA Tour Championships final. In the final, she defeated Mauresmo, 6–2, 6–0, which was the most one-sided final in the tournament since Martina Navrátilová won over Chris Evert by the same score in 1983.
• 2004 Australian Open final: lost to Henin 6–3, 4–6, 6–3. This was the third Grand Slam final contested by the Belgians. Henin seemed to have Clijsters's number at this point, particularly in Grand Slam tournaments.
• 2005 Indian Wells final: defeated Davenport 6–4, 4–6, 6–2. Unseeded, ranked 133 in the world, and in only her second tournament of the year after being sidelined by a wrist injury, Clijsters won seven straight games after Davenport opened up the match with a 4–0 lead.
• 2005 Miami final: defeated Maria Sharapova 6–3, 7–5. Both players struggled to keep the ball in play as windy conditions prevailed throughout the match. Her victory meant that she joined Steffi Graf as the only two women to win the Indian Wells-Miami double. These consecutive victories (Clijsters won 14 consecutive matches) catapulted Clijsters from 133 in the world to within the top 20. As Sharapova noted, "I think the biggest surprise was that it was her 14th match and yet I didn’t feel like she was physically fatigued at all. She is a very strong girl and she can play all day. Running from corner to corner is like a piece of cake for her."
• 2005 US Open quarterfinal: defeated Venus Williams 4–6, 7–5, 6–1. Clijsters had won only three out of nine matches against Williams (although she had won the last one). After Williams led 6–4, 4–2, Clijsters won 11 of the next 13 games, calling her win the best since she returned to competition.
• 2005 US Open final: defeated Mary Pierce 6–3, 6–1 to collect her one and only Grand Slam title. Prior to her victory at the US Open, she had lost four Grand Slam finals (one to Capriati and three to her countrywoman Henin).

Famous quotes

• Clijsters is often considered by few critics as "too nice." In response to these critics, she replied,

You don't have to hate your opponents to beat them.

— Kim Clijsters

See also

• List of female tennis players
• List of Grand Slam Women's Singles champions

References

1. ^ Kim's Diary-Thanks you 06-05-2007
2. "Comeback Queen Clijsters Triumphs, BBC Sport website (dated 2 April 2005)". Retrieved February 15. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
3. Face to face by The Guardian (October 5, 2003)
4. Hewitt and Clijsters reveal split BBC Sport (October 22, 2004)
5. Yahoo! Sports - Sports News, Scores, Rumors, Fantasy Games, and more
6. Retired tennis player Kim Clijsters gives birth to daughter
7. Serena stages superb comeback BBC news January 23, 2003
8. Clijsters takes Italian Open
9. Clijsters wins to keep No. 1 ranking
10. WTA Championship 2003 Day five
11. 2005 NASDAQ-100 Open News
12. Nice Work

External links

• Official website
• Kim Clijsters at the Women's Tennis Association
• Kim Clijsters at IMDb

Template:Persondata

• 1983 births
• Living people
• Belgian tennis players
• US Open champions
• French Open champions
• Wimbledon champions
• Flemish sportspeople