Kim Clijsters, Tennis Player, - Biography,
Belgian tennis player.
A
pic of her
Born June 8, 1983, Bilzen, Belgium
Height 1.74 m 5 foot
9
Weight 68 kg (150 lb)
Turned Pro August 17, 1997
Retired May 6,
2007
Plays Right; Two-handed backhand
Career Prize Money US$14,764,296
Singles
Career record: 427-104
Career titles: 34 WTA(11th in overall
rankings), 3 ITF
Highest ranking: No. 1 (August 11, 2003)
Grand Slam results
Australian Open F (2004)
French Open F (2001, 2003)
Wimbledon SF (2003,
2006)
U.S. Open W (2005)
Doubles
Career record: 129-50
Career
titles: 11 WTA, 3 ITF
Highest ranking: No. 1 (August 4, 2003)
Kim
Clijsters is a Belgian retired tennis player. She is a former World No. 1 ranked
in singles and in doubles.
During her professional career, Clijsters won 34 WTA singles titles and 11 WTA doubles titles. She won the U.S. 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 Svetlana Kuznetsova,
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 U.S.
Open, Maria Sharapova said that Clijsters's strength lies in how she always forces
her opponent to "hit that extra shot."
Family life
Clijsters
was born on June 8, 1983, in Bilzen, in Flemish Region of Belgium. She is the
daughter of a successful footballer, Lei Clijsters, and a national gymnastics
champion, Els Vandecaetsbeek. Clijsters claims to have inherited a 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. As of October 2006, she is engaged to American basketball player Brian Lynch, who is based in Clijsters's hometown of Bree. In an interview with "Sportweekend," Clijsters said that she and Lynch will marry on July 14, 2007, and that she is retiring to start a family.
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 Dokic, and the U.S. 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 U.S. 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 Championships 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 U.S. Open), losing both to Henin.
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 U.S. 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 U.S. 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 U.S. Open. Her U.S. $2.2 million paycheck was the largest payday in women's sports history.
On September 15, within days after her U.S. 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 number two.
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 Amelie 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 Montréal, 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 U.S. 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 Kloesel (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 Jankovic 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 is retiring immediately from professional tennis, concluding a career highlighted by her 2005 U.S. Open singles title.
Coaches
1992-1996:
Bart Van Kerckhove
1996-2002: Carl Maes
2002-2005: Marc Dehous
Records
2003
Clijsters' tour-best nine titles for the year (she also
achieved this feat in 2005) is the most since Martina Hingis won 12 titles in
1997.
Clijsters became not only the first Belgian—man or woman—to
be ranked number one, but also did it without winning a Grand Slam tournament.
Clijsters also is one of the few women to be both world number one in 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, Clijsters became the lowest ranked (No. 133) player ever
to win a Tier I event. In the final, she beat top ranked Lindsay Davenport 6-4,
4-6, 6-2. She is the lowest ranked player to defeat a reigning world number one
since 1975.
In Miami, Clijsters became only the second player (the first being
Steffi Graf in 1995 and 1996) to win the Indian Wells-Miami double. En route to
victory, she beat the sixth (Anastasia Myskina), fifth Elena Dementieva, second
Amelie 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' victory in the US Open Series and the subsequent U.S.
Open, she collected U.S. $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 U.S. Open.
2006
In
returning to the world number one spot in the rankings after the Australian Open
in January, Clijsters broke a rankings record. She was ranked as low as 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.
This site was written in June 2007
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