Tuesday, Aug 12, 2003
Tuesday, Aug 12, 2003 |
| Sport | ||||
|
News:
Front Page |
National |
Southern States |
Other States |
International |
Opinion |
Business |
Sport |
Miscellaneous |
Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Obituary | Sport
-
Tennis
With Lleyton Hewitt as a boyfriend, she had an inkling of what it would be like to be atop of the tennis world.
Now she can find out for herself.
Clijsters took the world No. 1 from the injured Serena Williams on Monday, after winning the JP Morgan Chase Open on Sunday.
It's a reward for relentless stamina and consistency.
Clijsters is the first woman to reach No. 1 without having won a Grand Slam title since the WTA Tour introduced its rankings in 1975. But she has shown steady form, winning a tour-leading six tournaments this season and reaching the semifinals of all 14 events she entered.
She is among the favourites to win the U.S. Open, which starts on Aug. 25.
Like Williams, No. 1 for 57 straight weeks, Clijsters stood out at an early age, earning rave reviews. At 11, her youth coach bet a case of beer that one day she would be ranked in the top 10. When the head of the regional tennis federation saw her play for the first time, he went home and woke up his wife to tell her he had seen something remarkable.
It seemed only her father, Lei, remained stoically calm through it all. After all, it was unlikely that anyone in the family would reach the sporting heights he had.
Lei, now his daughter's manager, was a midfielder in the Belgian national football team that reached the 1986 World Cup semifinals. Clijsters' mother was a local gymnastics champion.
Clijsters showed talent for sports quickly and spent hours training as soon as she started with tennis at age 6.
Soon, the prodigy started raking in the titles. At 11, she became the youngest Belgian junior champion. She won the National title at 15, also a record. She groomed a game built on booming groundstrokes and impressive court coverage.
In her first WTA tournament, four years ago, it took the top seed player to keep her out of the semifinals. At Wimbledon that season, she lost in the fourth round to the woman whose pictures long adorned the walls of her bedroom, Steffi Graf.
That fall, she won her first WTA tournament, the SEAT Open in Luxembourg. From then on, her rise was swift, Clijsters reached No. 18 in 2000 and almost immediately was a contender at Majors.
She reached the 2001 French Open final, losing to Jennifer Capriati 10-12 in the last set, the longest third set in a Roland Garros title match.
After a right shoulder injury slowed her early in 2002, she came back strong in the second half, capping it with victory in the year-ending Tour championships, beating Williams in the final.
She appeared poised to end Williams' Slam streak at the Australian Open in January, leading 5-1 in the third set of their semifinal. But Williams erased two match points and wound up winning.
At this year's French Open, Clijsters again reached the final, but she lost to countrywoman Justine Henin-Hardenne.
When she lost to an injured Venus Williams in the Wimbledon semifinals after taking the first set, Clijsters again faced questions about whether she can beat the Grand Slam jinx.
She'll be looking for an answer at Flushing Meadows later this month.
AP
Printer friendly
page
News:
Front Page |
National |
Southern States |
Other States |
International |
Opinion |
Business |
Sport |
Miscellaneous |
|
|
|
The Hindu Group: Home | About Us | Copyright | Archives | Contacts | Subscription Group Sites: The Hindu | Business Line | The Sportstar | Frontline | The Hindu eBooks | Home |
Copyright © 2003, The
Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of
this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of
The Hindu
|
