Belgian Industrialist Came To The Aid Of Kirsten Flipkens

Written by: on 3rd April 2013
BNP Paribas Open tennis
Belgian Industrialist Came To The Aid Of Kirsten Flipkens

at the BNP Paribas Open tennis tournament in Indian Wells, California, USA, 06 March 2013.  |

Belgian industrialist Jean-Pierre Heynderick came to the aid of the struggling Kirsten Flipkens last spring. With her ranking having fallen out of the top 200 and having discovered that she had blood clots in her legs that forced to take blood thinners, Flipkens was in a difficult spot. Her friend Kim Clijsters promised to provide her with coaching, but she still needed money to cover travel costs. The Belgium Tennis Federation had cut her off.

So she called Heynderick, who once ran an ITF event she had played in. They had become friends.

“Kirsten called me as a friend and only in that way did she call,” Heynderick told the New York Times. “My lone intention was to help as a friendly hand, a fatherly hand, because we knew the potential of Kirsten. We also knew that she had some physical problems which were temporary, so we believed she didn’t deserve not to be sponsored.”

Flipkens said that she more than appreciated it and her story now is fairly well known: she began to handle her own travel and scheduling, became more independent and her results began to improve. She was ranked No. 262 late last June and after reaching the quarters of Miami has climbed to a career high No. 22 – a remarkable rise in just nine months

“She didn’t have to worry anymore about practical things, and I think that was one of the elements,” Heynderick said. “We aren’t making her successful, but these are our little things we’ve given her.”

Flipkens has earned more than $270,000 in prize money this year, but knows how it is to be counting pennies. So she isn’t planning on splurging much.

 “I’m not the person who throws away every dollar that comes in through the door,” Flipkens said. “There’s also a life after tennis.”

©Daily Tennis News Wire

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