The first time Kim Clijsters entered the US Open, all the way back
in 1999, she faced a certain someone by the name of Serena Williams.
The first time Kim
Clijsters entered the U.S. Open, all the way back in 1999, she faced a certain
someone by the name of Serena
Williams.
All these years
later, with play at Flushing Meadows set to begin Monday, three-time U.S. Open
champion Clijsters is back on the scene, out of retirement at age 37 and
entered in a Grand Slam tournament for the first time since 2012.
And Williams, less
than a month from turning 39, is still at the top of tennis, the runner-up in
New York each of the past two years and at four of the past seven major
championships.
Asked to name a
moment that sticks in her memory, Clijsters pointed to that first meeting
against Williams, who won 4-6, 6-2, 7-5 in the third round and would go on to
claim the first of her 23 Grand Slam trophies.
"It was an
incredible match. The atmosphere was great. For me, that kind of, I think,
started the energy that I feel here when I play here," said Clijsters, who
won the U.S. Open in 2005, 2009 (defeating Williams in the final) and 2010,
along with the 2011 Australian Open.
"Any night
match that you get to play here at the U.S.
Open on Arthur Ashe is incredible," she said.
"It's nothing
like anything else anywhere else."
As for Clijsters'
thoughts on Williams and the possibility of equaling Margaret Court's total of
24 Slam singles titles?
"The great
results she had, not even a year after her daughter was born playing Grand Slam
finals, competing for Grand Slam titles was, I think, incredible,"
Clijsters said.
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