The WTA hard-court season is about to heat up out in Cincinnati, with 18 of the top 20 women committed at the Western & Southern Financial Group Women's Open. And we welcome back a familiar face emerging from the MIA category to relaunch a career that carried her to the No. 1 ranking and a Grand Slam title at the U.S. Open in 2005.
That would be Kim Clijsters, who was last seen bemoaning the demands of the pro tour and heading home to Belgium to marry and bear a child. It turns out that maybe pro tennis wasn't such a burden after all, and she is among us again. The towering question will be: Can Clijsters, relying on wild cards for entry into these summer events, recapture the form that once made her so tough -- especially on hard courts?
It's a complicated question, for sure.
On the upside, Clijsters' talent has spoken for itself, and she's already had a career that the vast number of her day-to-day rivals can only hope to duplicate. She's only 26, so age will be no impediment. And she is, as they used to say of certain politicians, "tan, rested and ready to run." You might add, "to do those cringe-inducing splits, too!"
But the downside to what might be a welcome escape from the drudgery of sitting around, bored and rich with a baby on her lap, is that Clijsters was always a shaky competitor who came up weak on a number of big occasions. Her breakout year was 2003, when she made two semis and two finals at the majors (finals at Roland Garros and the U.S. Open), but failed to win a title. It was a prognostication.
It isn't fair to call Clijsters a one-Slam wonder -- that's the exclusive territory of erratic players who made utterly unexpected and one-off statements, à la Gaston Gaudio or Iva Majoli. Clijsters was in the hunt at the majors from the day she became a force in tennis at the French Open in 2001. Still, she was 1-4 in finals and, perhaps more tellingly, stumbled at the semifinals in the four Grand Slam events she played after winning in New York.
If you saw her performances, you probably noticed that in big matches she often looked tentative and tight, and that's what her main obstacle is going to be henceforth in 2009. Only she won't be in the comfort zone she occupied before her hiatus, when she seemed happily reconciled to the fact that she could more or less mail it in during the early rounds.
Certain players are only really zoned in when they know what they're up against. Pete Sampras, one of the ablest competitors in the history of tennis, was offered a wild card into Wimbledon four years after he retired. He was tempted (most people agree that even today Sampras would be highly dangerous on Wimbledon grass), but decided against accepting the offer -- mainly because he felt insecure about playing a string of guys about whose games he knew nothing. He was always most vulnerable when he played a guy for the first time, whether the opponent was a comer destined for the top 10 or a journeyman.
And keep in mind that because of her status as a wild card, Clijsters might draw a Serena Williams, a Jelena Jankovic or a Victoria Azarenka in the early rounds at any event. Granted, those players would have reason to be nervous facing a former Grand Slam winner still at the peak of her physical powers, but they would have more of a point to prove than would Clijsters. And those free-swinging kids -- the Szavays, Radwanskas, Wozniackis and Bartolis -- will relish the opportunity to take down a big name. They'll also be fighting to defend something, while Clijsters will be striving to enjoy and reacquaint herself and find out whether she still has it.
No matter how happy, refreshed or eager Clijsters will be, she will first and foremost be trying to see whether her game can still stand up against her peers, and that means she'll be the one with all the pressure on her shoulders -- a challenge she's met with decidedly mixed results, even in her glory days.
Peter Bodo
