Kim Antonie Lode Clijster
 | |
| Country |  Belgium |
|---|---|
| Residence | Bree, Belgium |
| Date of birth | 8 June 1983 |
| Place of birth | Bilzen, Belgium |
| Height | 1.74 m (5 ft 8 1⁄2 in) |
| Weight | 68 kg (150 lb; 10.7 st) |
| Turned pro | 17 August 1997 |
| Retired | 6 May 2007 Returned 11 August 2009 |
| Plays | Right-handed (two-handed backhand) |
| Career prize money | US$17,779,204 |
| Singles | |
| Career record | 454–109 (80.6%) |
| Career titles | 38 WTA (13th in overall rankings) |
| Highest ranking | No. 1 (11 August 2003) |
| Current ranking | No. 5 (13 September 2010) |
| Grand Slam results | |
| Australian Open | F (2004) |
| French Open | F (2001, 2003) |
| Wimbledon | SF (2003, 2006) |
| US Open | W (2005, 2009, 2010) |
| Major tournaments | |
| Championships | W (2002, 2003) |
| Doubles | |
| Career record | 129–51 |
| Career titles | 11 WTA, 3 ITF |
| Highest ranking | No. 1 (4 August 2003) |
| Grand Slam Doubles results | |
| Australian Open | QF (2003) |
| French Open | W (2003) |
| Wimbledon | W (2003) |
| US Open | QF (2002) |
| Last updated on: September 14, 2009. | |
Kim Antonie Lode Clijsters (Dutch pronunciation: [kɪm ˈklɛistərs] ( listen); born 8 June 1983) is a Belgian professional tennis player. She is a former World No. 1 ranked player in singles and in doubles.
Clijsters has won 38 WTA singles titles and 11 WTA doubles titles. She won the US Open singles title in 2005, 2009 and 2010. She has also won 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 semi-finals. She announced her retirement with immediate effect on 6 May 2007 but almost two years later, on 26 March 2009, she publicly declared her intent to return to the WTA tour for the 2009 summer hard court season. In only her third tournament back, she won her second US Open title, becoming the first unranked player and wildcard to win the tournament, and the first mother to win a major since Evonne Goolagong in 1980. Clijsters is popularly known as one of the 'Comeback Queens' of tennis.
Playing style
Clijsters 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 Janković and Svetlana Kuznetsova is among the few tennis players on either the Association of Tennis Professionals or Women's Tennis Association 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' 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". Her first serve, while not overwhelmingly powerful, is placed well and earns aces and unreturnables. Clijsters tends to rush between first and second serves, which may contribute to her occasional matches with high numbers of double faults. Her mental fragility is considered her biggest weakness: at the earlier stages of her career she was considered a "choker", often surrendering big leads in the latter rounds of Grand Slams.Since winning the 2005 US Open, Clijsters has gained more control over her nerves. Clijsters is also considered to be one of the most popular players on the tour, known for her grace on the court and even temper. She has been voted the WTA Karen Krantzcke Sportsmanship Award by her fellow players seven times in her career.
Personal life
Clijsters was born on June 8, 1983, in Bilzen, Limburg, in the Flemish Region of Belgium. She is daughter of Lei Clijsters, a former soccer player, and Els Vandecaetsbeek, a former national gymnastics champion. Lei Clijsters died of lung cancer on 4 January 2009. Clijsters says that she inherited footballer's legs from her father and a gymnast's flexibility from her mother. Kim's younger sister Elke finished 2002 as the ITF World Junior Doubles champion and retired in 2004 after back injuries.
In December 2003, Clijsters announced her engagement to Australian 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 Kim's hometown of Bree. In an interview with Sportweekend (a sports programme on Belgian Flemish television), Clijsters stated that she was retiring to start a family. Clijsters and Lynch married secretly on 13 July 2007, at 6:00 in the morning at the Bree city hall. She was married by the mayor, with sister Elke, Lynch's brother Pat Lynch, and both sets of parents present.
Clijsters gave birth to a daughter on 25 February 2008, at 1:35 pm at the Vesalius hospital in Tongeren, Belgium. The girl, Jada Ellie, weighed 3.035 kg and measured 51 cm.
Tennis career
Junior 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.
1999
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.
2000–2002
Clijsters climbed up the rankings over the next couple of years. In 2001, she reached her first Tier I final at the tournament in Indian Wells, California, losing to Serena Williams in a match overshadowed by controversy. Clijsters also reached her first Grand Slam final at the French Open, where she lost to Jennifer Capriati 12–10 in the third set. This 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. Her next important breakthrough came at the end of 2002, when she won the year-end Home Depot Championships in Los Angeles, defeating top ranked Serena Williams in the final. This was only the fifth defeat of the year for Williams and snapped her 18-match winning streak. On her way to the final, Clijsters defeated fourth ranked Justine Henin and second ranked 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, although her win over Venus Williams was due to retirement, which helped her achieve this.
2003
Clijsters won nine singles tournaments and seven doubles titles in 2003, including the WTA Tour Championships and two Tier I singles tournaments. She also reached two Grand Slam singles finals, losing at both the French Open and the US Open to Henin. At the Australian Open, Clijsters lost in the semi-final to Serena Williams 4–6, 6–3, 7–5 after Clijsters led 5–1 in the third set and held a match point at 5–2. She also lost in the semi-final at Wimbledon to Venus Williams after leading by a set and a break. Her Tier I singles titles were at the Telecom Italia Masters in Rome, where she defeated Amélie Mauresmo in the final, and at the Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells, California, where she defeated Lindsay Davenport in the final. On 11 August 2003, Clijsters attained the World No. 1 ranking, holding the spot for 12 non-consecutive weeks during the remainder of the year, and was the first player to be top ranked by the WTA without first winning a Grand Slam singles title.
On August 18, 2003, Clijsters also attained the World No. 1 ranking in doubles, joining a very select group of only four players of Martina Navratilova, Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, Martina Hingis and Lindsay Davenport having reached the World number one ranking in singles and doubles simultaneously. By 2010, only Serena Williams has managed to join this group.
The World No. 1 ranking was again at stake in October during the final of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Filderstadt, Germany. Clijsters rallied from a set down to beat Henin. The match marked only the eighth time that the top two players battled for the top ranking. Even though Clijsters won that match, she finished the year ranked World No. 2, just behind Henin.
2004
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 the Pacific Life Open, 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 year, winning several matches, before reaggravating the injury.
2005
In February, after almost a year of inactivity caused by injuries, she made her return to the Women's Tennis Association tour by participating in her home country tournament at Antwerp, losing to Venus Williams in a quarter-final. She then completed her comeback in March and April when she won, as an unseeded player, 14 straight matches to claim two Tier I titles and regained a top-20 ranking. At the Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells, California, Clijsters was ranked World No. 133 but defeated World No. 5 Elena Dementieva in the semi-final and World No. 1 Lindsay Davenport in the final. Immediately after that win, Clijsters defeated four top-6 players in straight sets to win the NASDAQ-100 Open in Key Biscayne, Florida. Clijsters joined Steffi Graf as the only women to win the Indian Wells-Key Biscayne double. After losing to Clijsters in the Key Biscayne final, Maria Sharapova said, "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."
Clijsters finally won a Grand Slam singles title at the US Open. It was her first victory after reaching four Grand Slam finals previously. Clijsters defeated tenth-seeded Venus Williams in the quarter-finals 4–6, 7–5, 6–1, winning 11 of the last 13 games after Williams had led 6–4, 4–2. Clijsters also needed three sets to defeat top-seeded Sharapova in the semi-final but needed only two sets to defeat Mary Pierce in the final. By winning the US Open Series—a string of summer tournaments in North America before the US Open itself—Clijsters received a 100 percent bonus to the US$1.1 million in prize money she received for winning the US Open. Her US$2.2 million paycheck was the largest payday in women's sports history.
On 15 September, 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; it was rumored that this was due to her not granting Dehous a bonus following her victory.
At the year-ending Sony Ericsson Championships, Clijsters was eliminated after only two matches. She lost her first match to Pierce 6–1, 4–6, 7–6 and her second match to Amélie Mauresmo 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 Dementieva, 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 World No. 2.
2006
Clijsters started the year 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 semi-final match at the WTA tournament in Sydney, citing a left hip muscle strain.
At the Australian Open, Clijsters defeated former champion Martina Hingis in the quarter-finals 6–3, 2–6, 6–4 before retiring from her semi-final match with Amélie Mauresmo. Despite the loss, the ranking points she accumulated were enough to regain the World No. 1 ranking, a position she last held on 9 November 2003. She was the first tennis player, male or female, to rise from outside the Top 100 (World No. 134) to World No. 1 in less than a year. Clijsters' loss to Mauresmo in the Australian Open semi-final 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. At the French Open in May, Clijsters reached the semi-final without losing a set, defeating Hingis in the quarter-finals 7–6, 6–1. However, she lost to Justine Henin in the semi-final 6–3, 6–2 on her 23rd birthday. She was seeded second going into Wimbledon but was again eliminated in the semi-final by Henin.
Clijsters at 2006 Wimbledon
Clijsters collected her second title of the year as the top seed in Stanford, defeating Patty Schnyder in the final. Clijsters then reached the final in San Diego, falling to second-seeded Maria Sharapova in straight sets. This was her first loss to Sharapova in five career meetings.
On 16 August, after receiving a first round bye at the Tier I 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 18 August 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 defend her title at the US Open. She also missed the Fed Cup final against Italy, which Italy won 3–2.
Playing in Paris at the Gaz de France Stars tournament, her first event in more than two months, Clijsters successfully defended her title by beating qualifier Kaia Kanepi in the final. At the year-ending WTA Tour Championships, Clijsters lost a semi-final to 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 the year 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 in Sydney, Australia, defeating Jelena Janković in the final after being down a match point.
At the Australian Open, the fourth seeded Clijsters defeated sixth seed Martina Hingis in a quarter-final match before losing to Sharapova in the semi-finals 6–4, 6–2. This was the fourth consecutive time that Clijsters had lost in a Grand Slam semi-final.
Clijsters next played in Belgium at the Proximus Diamond Games in Antwerp, where she lost to Amélie Mauresmo in the final. 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 title in Warsaw, losing in the second round to Julia Vakulenko 7–6(3), 6–3. This was Clijsters's last professional match until 2009.
Retirement
In May, Clijsters failed to defend her title in Warsaw, losing in the second round to Julia Vakulenko 7–6(3), 6–3. This was Clijsters's last professional match until 2009. On 6 May 2007, citing injuries, Clijsters announced on her official website that she was retiring from professional tennis immediately.
2009: Comeback
Two years later, Kim, along with Tim Henman, Steffi Graf and Andre Agassi, played an exhibition event on Wimbledon's Centre Court in May, an event that she and Henman won 7–6 in a tiebreak. She also played a singles rubber against Graf, winning 6–4. In July, she won both of her doubles matches with the St. Louis Aces of World Team Tennis.
She officially announced during a press conference on 26 March 2009, that she was returning to professional tennis. She said that she had been inspired when preparing for the Wimbledon roof event during January 2009. Kim said that she had asked for wildcards for the Cincinnati and Toronto tournaments.Additionally, she asked for a wildcard to the US Open, after which she planned to evaluate the comeback in terms of success and the feasibility of combining it with her family life. Clijsters also stated that she preferred to think of it as a "second career" instead of a comeback, because so many factors (marriage, a baby, the recent death of her father) were different compared to her first career.
Clijsters started her second career at the Western & Southern Financial Group Women's Open in Cincinnati, following the acceptance of her wildcard. She defeated World No. 13 Marion Bartoli in the first round 6–4, 6–3. In her next two matches, she defeated World No. 20 Patty Schnyder 6–2, 7–5 and World No. 6 and reigning French Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova 6–4, 4–6, 6–2. In the quarterfinals, she lost to World No. 1 Dinara Safina 6–2, 7–5.
Following Cincinnati Clijsters played at the Rogers Cup in Toronto on another wildcard. She defeated British qualifier Elena Baltacha in the first round. In the second round, she defeated World No. 9 Victoria Azarenka 7–5, 4–6, 6–1 but lost to World No. 4 Jelena Janković in the third round 1–6, 6–3, 7–5, after serving for the match at 5–3.
She then received a wildcard to play in the main draw of the US Open. She easily won her first round match over Viktoriya Kutuzova 6–1, 6–1. She won her second round match, defeating World No. 14 Marion Bartoli for the second time in three weeks 5–7, 6–1, 6–2. She then defeated compatriot Kirsten Flipkens 6–0, 6–2 in the third round. She went on to upset World No. 3 Venus Williams in the fourth round 6–0, 0–6, 6–4. This was only Clijsters' 11th competitive match since coming out of retirement. Clijsters beat 18th seed Na Li in straight sets 6–2, 6–4 to reach the semi-finals where she faced defending champion and World No. 2 Serena Williams, winning 6–4, 7–5 after Williams was given a point penalty on match point after a dispute with an official over a foot fault call. Clijsters became the first unseeded finalist at the US Open since Venus Williams in 1997, and the first wildcard to ever reach the US Open final. With her victory over Serena, Clijsters became the only player to have beaten both Williams sisters in the same tournament twice. In the final she defeated ninth seed Caroline Wozniacki 7–5, 6–3 to win her second US Open title. Her US Open victory placed her in the top 20 in the world rankings. She also became the first Wild Card champion in US Open history and the first mother to win a Grand Slam title in the Open era since Evonne Goolagong Cawley won Wimbledon in 1980.
Clijsters then received a wildcard to play at the 2009 BGL Luxembourg Open in Luxembourg, as the second seed. She eased through her opening match 6–2, 6–2 against Meghann Shaughnessy but fell to Patty Schnyder in a close second round encounter 4–6, 6–3, 6–7.
Playing an exhibition match in Antwerp, Belgium on December 10, Clijsters defeated rival Venus Williams 6–1, 7–5.She finished the year ranked 18th.
In March 2010, Clijsters won her first Laureus World Sports Award, for her remarkable 2009 US Open comeback. She also won the WTA Comeback Player of the Year and the Karen Krantzcke Sportsmanship Award for the seventh time.
2010
Clijsters started her 2010 campaign at the Brisbane International in Australia as the top seed. She defeated Tathiana Garbin in the first round 6–2, 6–1 and Alicia Molik in the second round 6–0, 6–3. She then defeated Lucie Šafářová 6–1, 0–6, 6–4 in a very sloppy match to advance to the semifinals where she defeated Andrea Petkovic to set up a final with her former rival and compatriot Justine Henin, who was playing her first tournament after a 20-month break from tennis. Clijsters was easily leading 6–3, 4–1 only for Henin to win eight consecutive games to take the second set and lead 3–0 in the final set. Clijsters trailed 5–3 and saved two match points while down 15–40, only for her to come back and force a final set tie-break. She eventually won the match 6–3, 4–6, 7–6(6). This was Clijsters' 36th career title.
Clijsters' next tournament was the 2010 Australian Open, the first Grand Slam of the season where she was seeded 15h. In the first round, she defeated Valérie Tétreault 6–0, 6–4 in under an hour. In the second round, she defeated Tamarine Tanasugarn 6–3, 6–3. However, Clijsters was then stunned by World No. 20 Nadia Petrova in a 52-minute third-round match, 6–0, 6–1. This was the most lopsided defeat of Clijsters' career, eclipsing a 6–0, 6–2 defeat at the hands of Serena Williams in 2001, and ending her nine-match winning streak in a major.
Clijsters did not play competitively again until March at the 2010 BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells. She was seeded 14th but she fell to the 23rd seed Alisa Kleybanova in the third round 6-4, 1-6, 7-6(4).
However, Clijsters rebounded at the 2010 Sony Ericsson Open in Miami, the second Premier Mandatory Event of the year. As the 14th seed, she only dropped three games while defeating Petra Kvitová and Shahar Pe'er and then scored a big win over the defending champion and 4th seed Victoria Azarenka 6-4, 6-0. Clijsters defeated the World No. 10 Samantha Stosur 6-3, 7-5 in the quarter-finals and then eventually defeated Justine Henin in a two and a half hour semifinal, 6-2, 6-7(3), 7-6(6) having been a set and a break up. She went on to beat the 3rd seed and World No. 5 Venus Williams 6-2, 6-1 in 58 minutes in the final. As a result of winning the title, Clijsters' ranking rose to World No. 10
Playing her first clay tennis match in three years at the Andalucia Tennis Experience in Marbella as the third seed, she advanced to the second round after beating Alexandra Dulgheru in three sets. She suffered an upset however in the second round, losing to the World No. 258 Beatriz Garcia Vidagany, 7–5, 4–6, 6–4.
Clijsters played in Belgium's Fed Cup tie against Estonia, Clijsters defeated Maret Ani 6-4, 6-2 in her opening singles match. However, it was discovered that she had torn a muscle in her left foot which caused her to pull out of her next match against Kaia Kanepi. She later announced in a press conference that she would have to withdraw from the rest of the clay court season, including the 2010 French Open, the second Grand Slam of the year, where she was twice a finalist in 2001 and 2003 and would also have been considered one of the favourites to win.
Clijsters returned to action at the start of the grass-court season in Eastbourne as part of her Wimbledon warm-up where she was victorious in 2005. Clijsters, as the fifth seed, defeated compatriot Yanina Wickmayer 6-1 6-1 in her first grass tournament in her "second career". She then went on to destroy Lucie Šafářová 6-1 6-0 in a match that lasted 38 minutes before in turn being defeated by Victoria Azarenka in the quarterfinals. Despite this loss her ranking rose to World No. 8.
Clijsters was seeded 8th at her first Wimbledon Championships since 2006. She started well with a 6-0 6-3 defeat over Italian Maria Elena Camerin. She then beat Karolina Sprem and 27th seed Maria Kirilenko in straight sets to set up a fourth round clash with 17th seed Justine Henin. Clijsters came back from a set down to beat Henin 2-6, 6-2, 6-3. However, Henin had hyper-extended her elbow in the 1st set and required medical treatment. This injury later caused her to withdraw from the Summer hardcourt season leading up to and including the 2010 US Open. This win also meant that Clijsters now had a leading head-to-head record over Henin. Clijsters, however, surprisingly lost in the quarterfinals to 21st seed and eventual finalist Vera Zvonareva 3-6. 6-4, 6-2.
Clijsters played her next event at the 2010 Western & Southern Financial Group Women's Open held in Cincinnati where she made her comeback the previous year. This was her first event of the 2010 US Open Series. After a first round bye, Clijsters, as the 4th seed, defeated former World No.1 Dinara Safina 7-5, 6-2. She then trashed American wild-card Christina McHale 6-1, 6-1 to reach the quarter-finals where she won a tight two-setter against 11th seed Flavia Pennetta 7-6(6), 6-4 having been down a break in both sets and a set point in the first set. In the semi-finals, Clijsters was leading 2-1 when her opponent, Ana Ivanović, had to retire due to a foot injury. In the final, Clijsters faced 10th seed Maria Sharapova and after losing the first set, Clijsters found herself down 5-3 in the second set. She managed to save three championships on her own serve before rain interupted play. Clijsters came back to take the second set into a tie-break and despite being down 0-3, she came back to win the second set and then went on to claim a rearkable 2-6, 7-6(4), 6-2 come from behind victory. This win propelled her ranking to World No. 4 and made her the only player to have claimed three titles this season, her 38th overall.
Clijsters played her final event of the US Open Series in Montreal at the 2010 Rogers Cup where she was seeded 5th. She reached the quarterfinals before losing to Vera Zvonareva in three sets.
Clijsters is currently competing in the 2010 US Open where she is the No. 2 seed and is a favourite to win, alongside Caroline Wozniacki, Venus Williams, and Svetlana Kuznetsova. In the first round, she defeated Greta Arn in straight sets, 6–0 7–5. In the second round she defeated Australian teenager Sally Peers in straight sets 6-2 6-1. In the third round, she defeated 2010 Wimbledon semifinalst and 27th seed Petra Kvitová 6-3, 6-0, winning 12 straight games to finish the match. Clijsters went on to quickly beat 2008 French Open champion Ana Ivanović 6-2, 6-1 to advance to the quarterfinals. There Clijsters came from a break down in the third set to defeat 5th seed Samantha Stosur 6-3, 5-7, 6-3 to advance to the semifinals where she defeated 3rd seed Venus Williams 4-6, 7-6(2), 6-4 to extend her US Open match winning streak to 20, tied with Venus and Seles but second only to Chris Evert's 31-match streak from 1975-1979. In the final, Clijsters faced seventh seed Vera Zvonareva in a rematch of their Wimbledon quarterfinal meeting. Clijsters won 6-2, 6-1, to claim her third US Open title and her second as a mother, tying the Open Era record held by Australian Evonne Goolagong Cawley.
Although she defended her title, Clijsters declined to World No. 5 while the runner-up, Vera Zvonareva, advanced in the rankings to World No. 4, passing the Belgian—a quirk of the WTA computer ranking system.
Coaches
1992–1996: Bart Van Kerckhove
1996–2002: Carl Maes
2002–2005: Marc Dehous
since 2009: Wim Fisette
Records
2001
Clijsters became the first Belgian—man or woman—to reach a Grand Slam singles final in the Open Era.
2003
Clijsters became not only the first Belgian—man or woman—to be ranked World No. 1, but also did so without winning a Grand Slam tournament. Clijsters is one of only five women to have been ranked World No. 1 in singles and doubles simultaneously (the others being Martina Navratilova, Martina Hingis, Serena Williams, Arantxa Sánchez Vicario and Lindsay Davenport).
Clijsters compiled a 90–12 singles record. Her singles win total was the highest single-season total by any woman since Navratilova in 1982. Clijsters was the first woman to play more than 100 singles matches in a year since Chris Evert in 1974.
2005
At the NASDAQ-100 Open in Key Biscayne, Florida, Clijsters became only the second player (the first being Steffi Graf in 1995 and 1996) to win the Pacific Life Open–NASDAQ-100 Open double. En route to the Key Biscayne victory, she beat the fifth (Anastasia Myskina), fourth (Elena Dementieva), first (Amélie Mauresmo), and second (Maria Sharapova) seeds in consecutive matches.
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 single purse ever won by a female athlete. To that date, she held a North American hardcourt win-loss record of 36–1.
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.
2009
Third unseeded and first unranked female champion of a Grand Slam title by winning the 2009 US Open. Clijsters also became the first mother to win a major since Evonne Goolagong Cawley won the Wimbledon title in 1980. She defeated Danish Caroline Wozniacki 7–5, 6–3 in the US Open final.
Returned to WTA rankings at number 19, equaling the highest debut ever that was set by Andrea Jaeger in 1980.
Became first woman to have eliminated both William sisters in two Grand Slams.
2010
First woman to retain the US Open title since Venus Williams in 2001
First woman to win three successive US Opens in which she played (she did not play in the 2006, 2007 and 2008 tournaments). Chris Evert and Martina Navratalova both reached the final after two successive wins, but both lost.
Second woman to win two Grand Slams as a mother.
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:
1999
Belgian Sportswoman of the Year
WTA Most Impressive Newcomer
2000
Belgian Sportswoman of the Year
2001
Karen Krantzcke Sportsmanship Award (for 2000)
Belgian Sportswoman of the Year
2002
Karen Krantzcke Sportsmanship Award (for 2001)
Belgian Sportswoman of the Year
2003
Karen Krantzcke Sportsmanship Award(for 2002)
2004
WTA Player Service Award (for 2003)
Karen Krantzcke Sportsmanship Award(for 2003)
2005
ITF World Champion
WTA Tour Championships Race winner
Belgian Sportswoman of the Year
International Tennis Writers Association (ITWA) Player of the Year
International Tennis Writers Ambassador for Tennis
WTA Player of the Year
2006
WTA Player of the Year (for 2005)
WTA Comeback Player of the Year (for 2005)
Karen Krantzcke Sportsmanship Award (for 2005)
WTA Humanitarian of the Year
2007
Karen Krantzcke Sportsmanship Award (for 2006)
2009
VTV Tennis Performance of the Year
Belgian Sportswoman of the Year
2010
Laureus World Comeback of the Year (For 2009)
WTA Comeback Player of the Year (for 2009)
Karen Krantzcke Sportsmanship Award (for 2009)
(source:wikipedia)
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