Kim Clijsters born June 8, 1983) 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 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, Playing styleClijsters, 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. Kim 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 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, Kim 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. Kim 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.
Kim 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, Kim 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. Kim 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 1210 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, 75 63. 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-Hardenne and second ranked Venus Williams (when Williams retired). Kim 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-Hardenne. 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 64, 36, 51. 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, Kim 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-Hardenne. 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, Kim 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 63, 61 in the final. Along the way, she defeated 10th seeded Venus Williams and top seeded Maria Sharapova. By winning the U.S. Open Seriesa string of tournaments leading to the Grand SlamClijsters 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 Kim 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, 61, 46, 76. Amelie Mauresmo defeated her in the second match, 63, 76. 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, 62 63, 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.
Kim 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, Kim Clijsters defeated former champion Martina Hingis, 63, 26, 64 in a quarterfinal, before retiring from a semifinal match with Amιlie 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. Kim Clijsters won her first title of the year at a clay court event in Warsaw, defeating Svetlana Kuznetsova in the final 75, 62. 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, 76, 61. However, she lost to Justine Henin-Hardenne in a semifinal 63, 62, on her 23rd birthday. She was seeded second going into Wimbledon but was again eliminated in the semifinals by Henin-Hardenne. Kim Clijsters collected her second title of the year as the top seed in Stanford, defeating Patty Schnyder in the final 64, 62. Clijsters then reached the final in San Diego, falling to second-seeded Maria Sharapova 75, 75. 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 Stιphanie Dubois in the second round. Having won the first set 61 and trailing 23 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 32. At the Gaz de France Stars, her first tournament in more than two months, Clijsters successfully defended her title by beating qualifier Kaia Kanepi 63, 36, 64 in the final. En route to the final, Clijsters defeated Anne Kremer (63, 62), Martina Mόller (63, 62), Sandra Klφsel (61, 60) and Vera Zvonareva (64, 36, 64). At the year-ending WTA Tour Championships, Clijsters lost a semifinal to Amιlie Mauresmo 62, 36, 63, after defeating Dementieva and Kuznetsova and losing to Sharapova in the round robin phase of the tournament. 2007 Kim 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 46, 76(1), 64 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 64, 62. She played her last tournament in Belgium at the Proximus Diamond Games in Antwerp, where she lost to Amelie Mauresmo in the final 64, 76(4). At the Sony Ericsson Open in Key Biscayne, Florida, Clijsters lost in the fourth round to Li Na 46, 64, 62. In May, she failed to defend her 2006 title in Warsaw, losing in the second round to Julia Vakulenko 76(3), 63. This was Clijsters's last professional match. On May 6, 2007, citing injuries, Kim Clijsters announced on her official website that she was retiring from professional tennis immediately, concluding a career highlighted by her 2005 U.S. Open singles title. Records 2003
2005
2006
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