The Real Aussie Kim

Written by: Staff on 29th January 2011

The Real Aussie Kim

Kim Clijsters (BEL), 2011 Australian Open Women's Singles Champion |

Buy now while stocks last – the Kim Clijsters grand slam winning factory is going out of business.

On a balmy Melbourne night, Aussie Kim – she once dated Lleyton Hewitt so that is enough for a friendly nation to adopt her as their own – beat Li Na 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 to win her fourth major title. It was her first in Australia, mind you, and she seemed mightily relieved about that. As a happily married woman (and with Hewitt a happily married man – happily married to someone else) she could now accept her Antipodean moniker without wincing. No more would she have to smile politely in front of her husband, Brian, while all around her brought memories of her relationship with Lleyton.

“I finally feel like you guys can call me Aussie Kim now because I won the title,” she said, trying very hard not to cry.

Clijsters had already announced that she was not planning to stick around on the circuit for too much longer. It took her most of her first career to learn the art of winning a major trophy – the US Open in 2005 – but since she came out of retirement in 2009, she has been collecting the big titles with reckless abandon.

“Obviously, the last few years that I was playing, when I was No. 1 or top 3, I’ve always been kind of one of the players that could win it,” she explained. “When I was younger, it kind of overwhelmed me a little bit. The pressure or the nerves that I put upon myself got sometimes in the way of what I was trying to do out there and what I had to focus on. I think now that I’m a little bit older, the pressure leaves as soon as I leave through that door.”

But having learned how to do it, our Kim reckons it is time to move on. She and Brian want another baby and that seems a lot more important than playing tennis.

Unfortunately for women’s tennis, keeping Kim is considerably more important than adding to the world’s population. Clijsters and Li, aged 27 and 28 respectively, stumped up a cracking final and, in the absence of Serena Williams, it is hard to imagine anyone else playing as well for so long and with such intensity. Added to which, both women are likeable, open and funny. For the WTA, Clijsters and Li in the final was a win double.

Li ran away with the first set and was getting stuck into the second when Clijsters changed tack. Instead of trying to out-thump her rival from the baseline (that clearly wasn’t working), she tried mixing it up. She tried a little slice, she started to create a few more angles and she started to make Li think.

The Chinese in the crowd were getting edgy. They yelled encouragement and advice to their heroine. Alas, they did this during points. Li was not happy and headed towards the umpire to plead: “Can you tell the Chinese, ‘don’t teach me how to play tennis’?”. But it was only a temporary moment of pique – Li was delighted to have reached the final and she was happy to admit that Clijsters had outplayed her. And, inbetween times, she was happy to entertain the crowd.

Coached by her husband, Jiang Shan, she had, as the tournament progressed, revealed a few little secrets of family life on the road. For example, in the semi final, she made a slow start against Caroline Wozniacki because the night before the match, her husband was snoring too loudly and she did not get enough sleep. He was to be sent to sleep in the shower before the final.

As for motivation, hubby utilises basic psychology – if you win, you get to play with the family credit card. So what motivated her as she fought back against Wozzy? “Prize money!” was the simple response. But when it came to her biggest moment, Li reserved her best for last.

“You see that guy in yellow shirt,” she said to the crowd in the Rod Laver Arena after the final. “He’s my husband. I make a lot of jokes on him this week but I want to tell him – doesn’t matter if you fat or skinny, handsome or ugly; I always follow you and I always love you.”

That brought the house down and left Clijsters with a hard act to follow. So, stepping up to the microphone and clutching the enormous silver trophy – and a cheque for AUS$2.2million – she stopped short. “Before I forget,” she said. “On Saturday when I got here, I chipped a tooth at the airport. I went to the dentist and he fixed me up so well and so quickly that I promised him – I said if I got to the final I would thank him.” That took of the dental bills for her and the rest of family for the rest of their lives and even for a multi-millionairess, that is not to be sniffed at.

Then she set to work on the people in her support team. Her uncle, her late father’s brother, had made the trip to Melbourne but his dress sense had not travelled well. Clad in a less-than-fetching pair of green trousers, he was not going to escape attention.

“When he came to Doha, he wore the ugliest pair of green pants I have ever seen in my life,” the new champion explained. “And I won. Because I am so superstitious, I told him, you’re going to have to wear them every time you come and see me play. So thank you – not just for the green pants but for all your support.”

These were a couple of acceptance speeches the like of which we had not heard before. And, in a couple of years, we will never hear them again – Clijsters will be sitting with her feet up (to avoid swollen ankles) as she awaits the arrival of her second child and Li, already a veteran by today’s standards, will be heading for retirement.

So we end with a word to the wise (and I use the term loosely because I am talking to the WTA): when you try and teach the young stars of today, and the young hopefuls of tomorrow, how to become champions, do not show them DVDs of big serves, ferocious forehands, belting backhands, grunts and fist pumps; instead, show them how Clijsters and Li handled themselves throughout the Australian Open. They were foreigners, thousands of miles away from home, who had the 15,000 strong crowd hanging on their every word and backing both of them to come through and take the title. That really is the mark of a champion. It’s just a pity that neither of them will be around for much longer.

Topics: Kim Clijsters, Lleyton Hewitt

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