(Brussels) Kim Clijsters, former world number one in women’s tennis, announced on Tuesday that she was giving up competition and official tournaments for good, after having tried for two years to return to the highest level.
Posted at 12:02 p.m.
Updated at 12:40 p.m.
“I have decided not to play any more official tournaments […] thank you to everyone who has supported me over the past two years, ”wrote the 38-year-old Belgian on her Instagram account, under a photo showing her in front of a holiday landscape with her husband and three children.
On the WTA website, the Flemish sportswoman now living in the United States explained her decision by her responsibilities as a mother incompatible with the requirements of the competition. She also wants to support the budding basketball career of her eldest daughter Jada, 14.
Her last official match dates back to October 7, 2021 in California, when she was eliminated as soon as she entered the WTA 1000 in Indian Wells by the Czech Katerina Siniakova.
This defeat came on top of four other setbacks suffered since his second comeback started in 2020 after more than seven years without playing.
The Belgian, who was world number one for the first time in 2003, left the courts aged 23 in May 2007, having won 34 WTA singles titles, including the United States Open in 2005.
Injuries and constant efforts to stay on top had finally discouraged her.
But she pulled off a resounding comeback in 2009 just a year after the birth of her daughter Jada. Within two years, she won two more US Opens (2009, 2010) and one Australian Open (2011).
In addition to her four Grand Slam singles titles, Kim Clijsters has two doubles victories in these major tournaments (Roland-Garros then Wimbledon in 2003 with the Japanese Ai Sugiyama). She has also won the Masters three times.
The WTA website recalls on Tuesday that the Belgian has won a total of 41 titles in official tournaments, held the No. 1 spot four times in the space of eight years, and amassed winnings of “more than 24 million dollars” during his career.
The duels in the final against her compatriot and rival Justin Hénin – more than a dozen, including the one lost at Roland-Garros in 2003 – have remained legendary for tennis fans in Belgium.
Daughter of a Belgian gymnastics champion and a former Belgian international footballer – Lei Clijsters, who died in 2009 – Kim Clijsters announced her return to the circuit in September 2019.
But the coronavirus pandemic (imposing travel restrictions) and a knee injury have made it difficult for her, she also said on Tuesday.