TENNIS:KIM CLIJSTERS left Melbourne last night with a fourth grand slam trophy and, much to her relief, a full head of hair. The Belgian had made a bet with her coach, Wim Fissette, she would shave her head if she won the title here. She beat Li Na of China 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 in the final but it seems she got away without doing the deed.
When she won the US Open in New York last September, Clijsters shaved Fissette’s head, to honour an initial bet. But when she revealed he might be able to return the favour if she was victorious here, it did not go down too well with her husband.
“I said if I win another one I’ll shave my head but my husband wasn’t too happy with that one,” she said.
Some grand slam champions like to crack open the bubbly and others hit the dance floor but Clijsters celebrated her latest victory in a slightly odd fashion, after receiving an invitation, via Twitter, from the men’s doubles champions, the American twins Bob and Mike Bryan.
Anyone wandering around Melbourne’s favourite haunts might have bumped into three Australian Open winners, all enjoying themselves after their respective triumphs.
“Last we night we caught up with the Bryan brothers for a little bit and [we were] trying to find a place we could go,” Clijsters said. “We didn’t find anything, but we walked the streets of Melbourne for about an hour, just laughing and talking.”
Having dashed Li’s hopes of becoming the first Chinese player to win a grand slam singles title, Clijsters now has four such titles of her own. On the evidence of the past fortnight, she could well win several more.
Eighteen months into her “second career,” after two years of retirement during which she got married and gave birth to her first child, Clijsters has won the past two grand slam titles and is the best player in the world.
That the official rankings do not show that yet is simply because she has not played enough tournaments to hit the top.
Clijsters, who will be back in action next weekend, when she plays in Antwerp in Belgium’s Fed Cup tie against the United States, will take the number two ranking from Russia’s Vera Zvonareva today. She plays her next WTA Tour event in Paris next month.
Reaching the semi-finals or better there would take her above Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki, to become the world number one for the first time since 2006.
When she first returned to the tour in the summer of 2009, Clijsters said she would not look past her first three tournaments, unwilling as she was to tempt fate by committing herself too far into the future.
A year and a half and three grand slam titles on, she will go into the French Open in Paris in May as the favourite, even if clay is not her best surface.
With Justine Henin having retired for a second time last week, because of an elbow injury, and with Serena Williams, the only other player able to match Clijsters, still out through an injury of her own, the Belgian’s path could be clear for a run in Paris. Brad Gilbert, one of Andy Murray’s former coaches, believes it is possible.
“I think Kim’s going to be the big favourite for the French Open,” he said, “and if she wins there, can you imagine, we could be looking at the ‘Kimpressive slam’.”
Clijsters has never won the French Open or Wimbledon and it is the latter, a tournament that as a child she dreamt about winning, that continues to drive her on. “As a young girl when I played juniors there, that was one of my biggest dreams, to win Wimbledon,” she said. “If you can have one on your CV, then that’s the one.”
