Tennis News: Kim Clijsters is looking forward to returning to action at the US Open even though the COVID-19 pandemic has made him spend more time with family after some time before the suspension of the tournament that he had a number of tournaments.
To the newspaper in Belgium, Het Laatse Nieuws (HLN), tennis player who has pocketed four Grand Slam titles, Kim Clijsters revealed, “I am still motivated. I hope we can still play this season. But even if I don’t, I am determine to keep going.”
The 37-year-old Clijsters was rank first in the world before and after her retirement for the first time, in the 2007-2009 period. She gave birth to her daughter in 2008. She won the US Open before giving birth and won the Australian Open and two other US Open titles.
Clijsters retired for the second time after the 2012 US Open season and she has had two sons since then.
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“I always felt my dream had been fulfilled,” Clijsters said in a previous interview with the Tennis Hall of Fame.
“After I gave birth to my third child, Blake, I began to travel and visit tournaments. I commented on the match. But I still feel like a tennis player.”
Going back into the tournament would be a challenge for Clijsters. He started this season by going down in Dubai in February and he was immediately eliminated from the first round after losing to Garbine Muguruza. He then lost to Johanna Konta in the opening match in Monterrey, the last WTA tournament before the suspension of the tournament was put in place.
Clijsters is in the US nearing the time of the tournament at Indian Wells, where she will go down in singles and doubles with Venus Williams before the tournament becomes the first victim of the ferocity of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Clijsters family lives in their home located in New Jersey, where they don’t have a tennis court and the public tennis court is closed.
“We made a field with kitchen chairs,” Clijsters admitted.
They then returned to Belgium and quarantined themselves for two weeks. To HLN he also stated that this pause allowed his body to rest and recover from a knee injury.
“If the US Open can be held, I want to be ready to do it. “I already feel happy if I can play on field number 18. I don’t need to enter Arthur Ashe Stadium),” said Clijsters.
