Belgian Not Looking Like A Real Contender

Clijsters clocked by Serena

By Sandra Harwitt
tennisreporters.net

Susan Mullane/ Camerawork USA, Inc.

FROM THE NASDAQ-100 OPEN IN MIAMI – At this point and time, the talk can be that Kim Clijsters is the only player ready to step up to the service line and challenge world No. 1 Serena Williams, but the evidence is a little shaky at best.

Yes, Serena did take down Williams in the final of the season-ending WTA Championships last November, but that is quickly looking like a one off. On Thursday at the NASDAQ-100 Open, the third-seeded Clijsters surrendered 6-4, 6-2 for the seventh time in eight career meetings against Williams and the scene was not pretty.

The only possible good news for Kimmy is that her loss this time didn’t quite equal up to the stature of her shocking semifinal performance against Serena at the Australian Open in January. If you don’t remember that match, it was the encounter where she was proving that she could smack a Williams sister around a tennis court as she sped her way to a 5-1 lead in the third set. That’s when the Belgian melted away like a not so fine piece of Belgian chocolate to put Serena in the history books – the American dynamo went on to win her fourth consecutive Grand Slam title at the Down Under major.

Of course, the one saving grace for Clijsters is she hasn’t been the person going around saying she’s a contender with Serena and Venus. In fact, although Clijsters is visibly competitive on the court, she normally takes such a nonchalant view of the importance of winning after matches it sometimes comes off like she doesn’t care all that much.

After this latest devastating loss to Serena – she only posted a paltry six winners, only two in the first set in the entire match to 22 for Williams – Clijsters identified the difference between the two.

“I think Serena, she’s maybe a head taller than me,” said Clijsters, who won the Pacific Life Open title at the event right before the NASDAQ-100 Open. “She’s a lot stronger than me. I think a lot of those things make a difference, definitely.

“Those things are definitely, probably, the biggest difference. I know for myself, I mean – I’m probably as fit as I can be. I can always be fitter and stronger, but then my movement will go off or I’ll get slower if I want to be stronger. And the other way around, if I want to be fitter and lose weight, then I probably won’t be able to hit the ball as hard anymore.

“So you have to mix and match a little bit. But, so far I’ve been going pretty well with the way my body [is] and the way I’m feeling. I’m sure, she’s worked all her life already to get this far and to get, probably, as strong as she is.”

TOO MUCH TENNIS

Susan Mullane/ Camerawork USA, Inc.

In terms of her abilities today against Serena, it is fair to say that Clijsters has had a busy few weeks, winning the Indian Wells tournament right before this. After the match she did say, “I started off playing well, but at the end of the first set, after a few rallies, I felt physically and mentally empty. I played a lot of singles and doubles in the last few weeks. I couldn’t bring my self back to the level necessary to compete. I’m taking four or five weeks off after here.”

During that time off, not such a bad idea since a player can reach a point that they are over-saturated by playing, Clijsters could rejuvenate and show a little more determination towards wining. Nevertheless, she’s always been the type to brush off losses rather easily, insisting that there are far more important concerns than the outcome of a tennis match in life.

For women’s tennis, it can be a big drawback that Clijsters, herself, doesn’t act like upending the Williams sisters and seeking the throne is an important step to take. After all, where does it leave the game if there’s no one out there to contend with the sisters. And there is also the somewhat frightening point that Venus, who went down to Meghann Shaughnessy in the fourth round here, is looking more and more like the work it would take to try and challenge Serena is too immense a task to consider.

As for Kimmy, maybe people should just let her be who she is – and that person may not be someone who wants to spend all her energy striving to reach the apex of the game, especially since there’s no clear-cut outcome if she was to make that decision.