Clijsters To Make Tour, Slam Return in Summer - 網球 Tennis

Clijsters To Make Tour, Slam Return in Summer


BREE, Belgium - She was one of the most successful and popular players in
women's professional tennis history, and on Thursday, March 26, 2009, after
nearly two years of retirement, Kim Clijsters announced she will return to
the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour for three tournaments this August, as well as a
series of exhibitions.

Clijsters will play her first three Tour events back at the Western &
Southern Financial Group Women's Open in Cincinnati, the Rogers Cup in
Toronto and the US Open in New York, following several exhibition events in
the months surrounding those. The Belgian, 25, began training at the start of
2009 with the initial aim of playing just the exhibitions, most notably "A
Centre Court Celebration" at Wimbledon in May, which will see her share the
court with the likes of Steffi Graf, Andre Agassi, Tim Henman and the new
Centre Court roof. But her hunger for competition and hard work on the
practice court proved much greater than originally thought.

"It all started with preparing for the gala match at Wimbledon. It was all
pretty laid back. But I liked it so much I was onto my training schedule from
my pro days, and then the hunger for more came automatically," Clijsters
said. "I look at this as a second career, not as a comeback, as I am now in a
situation where not everything revolves around tennis 24 hours a day. We'll
see how I, Jada and the others in my environment can handle this."

"I am delighted that one of our great champions and former world No.1s, Kim
Clijsters will be returning to professional tennis and the Sony Ericsson WTA
Tour this year," said Sony Ericsson WTA Tour Chairman & CEO, Larry Scott.
"Kim was an extremely popular player on Tour both with the fans and other
players and it will great to see her competitive spirit come alive again on
court in Cincinnati, Toronto and of course Flushing Meadows, where she won
her first Grand Slam."

Between turning pro in August 1997 and then retiring in May 2007, Clijsters
put together an historic Tour resumé. Her 34 singles titles included one
Grand Slam - the 2005 US Open, while her 11 doubles titles included two Grand
Slams - the French Open and Wimbledon in 2003, both with Japan's Ai Sugiyama.
She made it all the way to No.1 in the world on the rankings in both of those
disciplines as well, even holding both top rankings at the same time for
three weeks.

Clijsters cited frustrations with injury and the desire to begin a family as
reasons she retired in 2007, her last event being the J&S Cup in Warsaw in
May of that year, falling in the second round to Julia Vakulenko.

Now, after time to heal from the many injuries that plagued her throughout
her first decade on the Tour, plus her own family made up of husband and pro
basketball player Brian Lynch and daughter Jada Ellie, born on February 27,
2008, she is ready to embark on the second phase of her Tour career.


http://www.sonyericssonwtatour.com/1/newsroom/stories/?ContentID=3106

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