Famous Players : Men
Famous Players : Women
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Famous Tennis Players
Kim Clijsters
Kim Clijsters (born June 8, 1983 in Bilzen, Belgium) currently is the fifth ranked female tennis player in the world, a former number one player, the 2005 U.S. Open champion, and the winner of the 2002 and 2003 WTA Tour Championships.
Clijsters was an accomplished junior player. In singles, she finished as runner-up in the 1998 Wimbledon junior event, placing 11th in the year-end singles ranking. In the same year in doubles, Clijsters won the French Open title with Jelena Dokic, and the U.S. Open with Eva Dyrberg, ending the season as number four in the International Tennis Federation junior doubles world ranking.
In 1999, Clijsters made her breakthrough professionally. Playing through the qualifying rounds, she made it through the main draw of Wimbledon, wherein she defeated tenth ranked Amanda Coetzer en route to the fourth round, where Clijsters lost to her childhood idol Steffi Graf. Later that summer, Clijsters reached the third round of the U.S. Open, losing to eventual champion Serena Williams after serving for the match. In the autumn, Clijsters won her first Women's Tennis Association (WTA) singles title at Luxembourg. She followed up with her first WTA doubles title at Bratislava, partnering Laurence Courtois
Clijsters started her 2006 season by winning an exhibition tournament, the Watson Water Challenge, in Hong Kong. On her way to the title she defeated Jie Zheng, Elena Dementieva, and top ranked Lindsay Davenport.
Clijsters then withdrew from her semifinal match at the WTA tournament in Sydney, citing a left hip muscle strain.
At the 2006 Australian Open, Clijsters defeated former champion Martina Hingis, 6-3, 2-6, 6-4 in a quarterfinal, before retiring from a semifinal match with Amelie Mauresmo. Despite the loss, the ranking points she accumulated were enough to regain the world number one spot, a position she last held on November 9, 2003. She was the first tennis player, male or female, to rise from outside the Top 100 (No. 134) to No. 1 in less than year.
At the year-ending WTA Tour Championships, Clijsters lost a semifinal to Amélie Mauresmo 6-2, 3-6, 6-3, after defeating Dementieva and Kuznetsova and losing to Sharapova in the round robin phase of the tournament.
Grand Slam singles finals
Year |
Championship |
Position |
Opponent |
Score |
2005 |
U.S. Open |
Champion |
Mary Pierce |
6-3, 6-1 |
2001 |
French Open |
Runner-Up |
Jennifer Capriati |
1-6, 6-4, 12-10 |
2003 |
French Open |
Runner-Up |
Justine Henin-Hardenne |
6-0, 6-4 |
2003 |
U.S. Open |
Runner-Up |
Justine Henin-Hardenne |
7-5, 6-1 |
2004 |
Australian Open |
Runner-Up |
Justine Henin-Hardenne |
6-3, 4-6, 6-3 |
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