Kim Clijsters (, ; born June 8, 1983) is a retired Belgian tennis player. She is a former World No. 1 ranked player in singles and in doubles.

During her professional career, Clijsters won 34 WTA singles titles and 11 WTA doubles titles. She won the U.S. Open singles title in 2005 and the WTA Tour Championships singles title in 2002 and 2003. In doubles, she won the French Open and Wimbledon titles in 2003. Clijsters was twice a singles runner-up at the French Open and a one-time runner-up at the Australian Open, also reaching two Wimbledon singles semifinals. She announced her retirement with immediate effect on May 6, 2007.

Clijsters, known as Aussie Kim, Kim Kong, Killing Kim, or Kim Possible to many fans, is recognized for her deep, powerful, well-placed groundstrokes, as well as her court-wide defense, characterized by speed and athleticism. Clijsters, along with Svetlana Kuznetsova, is among the few tennis players on either the ATP or WTA tours who can slide (known as the straddle) on all surfaces. http://tennis.about.com/od/playersfemale/a/clijstersgp.htm After being defeated by Clijsters in the U.S. Open, Maria Sharapova said that Clijsters's strength lies in how she always forces her opponent to "hit that extra shot."

Kim Antonie Lode Clijsters was born on June 8, 1983, in Bilzen, in the Flemish Region of Belgium. She is the daughter of a successful footballer, Lei Clijsters, and a national gymnastics champion, Els Vandecaetsbeek. Clijsters claims to have inherited a footballer's legs from her father and a gymnast's flexibility from her mother. Clijsters' younger sister Elke finished 2002 as the ITF World Junior Doubles champion and retired in 2004 after back injuries.

In November 2003, Clijsters announced her engagement to Australian tennis player Lleyton Hewitt, but their relationship ended in October 2004. In October 2006, she announced her engagement to American basketball player Brian Lynch, who is based in Clijsters's hometown of Bree. In an interview with "Sportweekend," Clijsters said that she and Lynch will marry on July 14, 2007, and that she is retiring to start a family. However, Clijsters and Lynch secretly married Friday, July 13, 2007 at 6:00 in the morning at the Bree city hall. She was married by the mayor, with her sister, Elke Clijsters, Lynch's brother, Pat Lynch, and both families' parents. On July 10 2007 it was confirmed that Kim is pregnant with her first child, a girl. The news was first brought into the world by father Lei (on his weblog) and then confirmed by her spokesperson. The expected birth date is January 2008.

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 Dokić, 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 climbed up the rankings over the next couple of years. In 2001, she reached her first Grand Slam final at the French Open, where she lost to Jennifer Capriati 12-10 in the third set. Her next important breakthrough came at the end of 2002, when she won the year-end WTA Tour Championship in Los Angeles, defeating top ranked Serena Williams in the final, 7-5 6-3. During that time, Serena was considered to be the most dominant player, and being defeated in straight sets by an 18-year old was an incredible shock. On her way to the final, she also beat fourth ranked Justine Henin-Hardenne and second ranked Venus Williams (when Williams retired).

Clijsters had her career-best season in 2003. She won nine singles tournaments and seven doubles titles that year, including the French Open and Wimbledon. She successfully defended her WTA Tour Championships title and reached two Grand Slam finals (French Open and U.S. Open), losing both to Henin-Hardenne. She reached the semis at the Australian Open and Wimbledon, showing incredible consistency. With the exception of her losses in the final, one memory that will be remembered is her loss to Serena Williams at the 03 Aussie Open semis. Serena had won her last 26 Grand Slam matches (as well as winning the last three Grand Slams), and after stunning her in straight sets at the Year-End Championships, she seemed well on her way for another upset victory as she lead 6-4, 3-6, 5-1. However, an incredibly resilient Williams fought off two match points, and ran off six straight games to secure a spot in the final, and ending up achieving the "Serena Slam".

On August 11, 2003, Clijsters attained the top ranking, holding the spot for 12 non-consecutive weeks before losing it later in the year to Henin. She is the first woman to be ranked number one on the computer rankings without winning a Grand Slam title.

Clijsters started 2004 by reaching her fourth career Grand Slam final at the Australian Open, where she lost once more to Henin-Hardenne. She then won two consecutive titles in Paris and Antwerp. While defending her Tier I title at Indian Wells, however, Clijsters began to have problems with her wrist, eventually requiring surgery and forcing her to withdraw from most tournaments. She attempted a comeback towards the end of the season, winning several matches, before reaggravating the injury.

In February 2005, after almost a year of inactivity caused by injuries, she made her return to the WTA tour by participating in her home country tournament at Antwerp, losing to Venus Williams in a quarterfinal. She then completed her comeback to the top echelon of women's tennis when she won, as an unseeded entry, 14 straight matches to claim two Tier I titles (Indian Wells and Miami) in March. During that run, Clijsters defeated five of the world's top six players.

Clijsters finally won a Grand Slam singles title at the U.S. Open. It was her first victory after reaching four Grand Slam finals previously. In the tournament, Clijsters defeated Mary Pierce 6-3, 6-1 in the final. Along the way, she defeated 10th seeded Venus Williams and top seeded Maria Sharapova. By winning the U.S. Open Series—a string of tournaments leading to the Grand Slam—Clijsters received a 100 percent bonus to the U.S. $1.1 million in prize money at the U.S. Open. Her U.S. $2.2 million paycheck was the largest payday in women's sports history.

On September 15, within days after her U.S. Open victory, it was announced that the cooperation between Clijsters and her coach, Marc Dehous, would come to an end. Dehous thought that it was time to do something else.

At the 2005 WTA Tour Championships, Clijsters was eliminated after only two matches. She lost her first match to Mary Pierce, 6-1, 4-6, 7-6. Amélie Mauresmo defeated her in the second match, 6-3, 7-6. Clijsters said in interviews that her defeats were due to fatigue and maybe jet lag, having had a relatively short time to adjust and acclimatize before the tournament began. Although she won her third match in the round-robin tournament against Elena Dementieva, 6-2 6-3, it was considered a dead rubber.

Overall, she won nine singles events in 2005, her last one being at the Gaz de France Stars in Hasselt. She ended the year ranked No. 2.

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 Amélie 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.

Clijsters' loss to Mauresmo in the Australian Open semifinals was due to an ankle injury. Although she had been expected to miss at least eight weeks to recover, Clijsters returned two weeks later at the Proximus Diamond Games in Antwerp. She lost the final of that tournament to Mauresmo in three sets.

Clijsters won her first title of the year at a clay court event in Warsaw, defeating Svetlana Kuznetsova in the final 7-5, 6-2.

In May, Clijsters competed at the French Open. She did not lose a set on her way to the semifinals. In a quarterfinal, she once again defeated Hingis, 7-6, 6-1. However, she lost to Justine Henin-Hardenne in a semifinal 6-3, 6-2, on her 23rd birthday.

She was seeded second going into Wimbledon but was again eliminated in the semifinals by Henin-Hardenne.

Clijsters collected her second title of the year as the top seed in Stanford, defeating Patty Schnyder in the final 6-4, 6-2. Clijsters then reached the final in San Diego, falling to second-seeded Maria Sharapova 7-5, 7-5. This was her first loss to Sharapova in five career meetings.

On August 16, after receiving a first round bye at the 2006 Rogers Cup in Montréal, Clijsters faced Canadian Stéphanie Dubois in the second round. Having won the first set 6-1 and trailing 2-3 in the second set, Clijsters slipped and fell on her left wrist and was forced to retire from the match. On August 18, 2006, Clijsters announced on her official website that the condition of her wrist was worse than she had expected and that she would be unable to compete in the 2006 U.S. Open to defend her title. She also missed the Fed Cup final against Italy, which Italy won 3-2.^{http://www.sport.be/kimclijsters/eng/nieuws/laatstenieuws/}

At the Gaz de France Stars, her first tournament in more than two months, Clijsters successfully defended her title by beating qualifier Kaia Kanepi 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 in the final. En route to the final, Clijsters defeated Anne Kremer (6-3, 6-2), Martina Müller (6-3, 6-2), Sandra Klösel (6-1, 6-0) and Vera Zvonareva (6-4, 3-6, 6-4).

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.

Clijsters started her final season on the tour by winning an exhibition tournament, the Watson Water Challenge, in Hong Kong. On her way to the title, she defeated Jie Zheng, Patty Schnyder, and top ranked Maria Sharapova.

Clijsters then won the Medibank International tournament in Sydney, Australia, defeating Jelena Janković in the final 4-6, 7-6(1), 6-4 after being down a match point.

At the 2007 Australian Open, the fourth seeded Clijsters defeated sixth seeded Martina Hingis in a quarterfinal match. However, she lost to Sharapova in a semifinal 6-4, 6-2.

She played her last tournament in Belgium at the Proximus Diamond Games in Antwerp, where she lost to Amelie Mauresmo in the final 6-4, 7-6(4). At the Sony Ericsson Open in Key Biscayne, Florida, Clijsters lost in the fourth round to Li Na 4-6, 6-4, 6-2.

In May, she failed to defend her 2006 title in Warsaw, losing in the second round to Julia Vakulenko 7-6(3), 6-3. This was Clijsters's last professional match.

On May 6, 2007, citing injuries, Clijsters announced on her official website that she is retiring immediately from professional tennis, concluding a career highlighted by her 2005 U.S. Open singles title.

* 1992-1996: Bart Van Kerckhove * 1996-2002: Carl Maes * 2002-2005: Marc Dehous

2003

* Clijsters' tour-best nine titles for the year (she also achieved this feat in 2005) is the most since Martina Hingis won 12 titles in 1997.

* Clijsters became not only the first Belgian—man or woman—to be ranked number one, but also did it without winning a Grand Slam tournament. Clijsters also is one of the few women to be both world number one in singles and doubles.

* Clijsters compiled a 90-12 singles record. Her singles win total was the highest single-season total by any woman since 1982. Clijsters was the first woman to play more than 100 singles matches in a year since 1974.

2005 * By winning in Indian Wells, Clijsters became the lowest ranked (No. 133) player ever to win a Tier I event. In the final, she beat top ranked Lindsay Davenport 6-4, 4-6, 6-2. She is the lowest ranked player to defeat a reigning world number one since 1975.

* In Miami, Clijsters became only the second player (the first being Steffi Graf in 1995 and 1996) to win the Indian Wells-Miami double. En route to victory, she beat the sixth (Anastasia Myskina), fifth Elena Dementieva, second Amélie Mauresmo, and third Maria Sharapova seeds in consecutive matches. She was the first unseeded winner of the tournament and did not lose a set in the tournament.

* Following Clijsters' victory in the US Open Series and the subsequent U.S. Open, she collected U.S. $2.2 million in prize money, the largest paycheck in women's sports history. To that date, she held a North American hardcourt win-loss record of 36-1, the most matches ever won on that surface during a season.

* Clijsters had a 22-match winning streak from August to October. During the streak, she won tournaments in Los Angeles, Toronto, and Luxembourg and the U.S. Open.

2006 * In returning to the world number one spot in the rankings after the Australian Open in January, Clijsters broke a rankings record. She was ranked as low as No. 134 in March 2005, so her return to the top spot in a ten-month span was the fastest and biggest leap in women's tennis history.

Clijsters is considered by her peers as one of the most likeable players on tour. This, combined with her accomplishments on court, has earned her numerous citations:

2000 * WTA Newcomer of the Year (for 1999). 2001 * Karen Krantzcke Sportsmanship Award (for 2000). 2002 * Karen Krantzcke Sportsmanship Award (for 2001). 2003 * Karen Krantzcke Sportsmanship Award (for 2002). 2004 * WTA Player Service Award (for 2003). * Karen Krantzcke Sportsmanship Award (for 2003).

2005 * ITF World Champion. * WTA Tour Championships Race winner. * Belgian Sportswoman of the Year. * International Tennis Writers Association (ITWA) Player of the Year. * International Tennis Writers Ambassador for Tennis. 2006 * WTA Player of the Year (for 2005). * WTA Comeback Player of the Year (for 2005). * Karen Krantzcke Sportsmanship Award (for 2005). 2007 * Karen Krantzcke Sportsmanship Award (for 2006).

*1999: Bratislava (lost to Amélie Mauresmo) *2000: Filderstadt (lost to Martina Hingis) *2001: Indian Wells (lost to Serena Williams) *2001: French Open (lost to Jennifer Capriati) *2001: 's-Hertogenbosch (lost to Justine Henin-Hardenne) *2002: Stanford (lost to Venus Williams) *2002: Tokyo (lost to Serena Williams) *2003: Antwerp (lost to Venus Williams) *2003: Scottsdale (lost to Ai Sugiyama)

*2003: Berlin (lost to Justine Henin-Hardenne) *2003: French Open (lost to Justine Henin-Hardenne) *2003: San Diego (lost to Justine Henin) *2003: U.S. Open (lost to Justine Henin) *2004: Australian Open (lost to Justine Henin) *2006: Antwerp (lost to Amélie Mauresmo) *2006: San Diego (lost to Maria Sharapova) *2007: Antwerp (lost to Amélie Mauresmo)

*2000: Hobart (with Alicia Molik) *2000: Leipzig (with Laurence Courtois) *2001: Scottsdale (with Meghann Shaughnessy) *2001: ‘s-Hertogenbosch (with Miriam Oremans) *2001: Wimbledon (with Ai Sugiyama)

*2001: Tokyo (with Ai Sugiyama) *2003: Indian Wells (with Ai Sugiyama) *2003: Berlin (with Ai Sugiyama) *2003: WTA Tour Championships (with Ai Sugiyama)

*2000: Wimbledon (with Lleyton Hewitt)

*A = did not participate in the tournament *SR = the ratio of the number of singles tournaments won to the number of those tournaments played *¹ The San Diego tournament only achieved Tier I status in 2004. *² If ITF women's circuit (Hardcourt: 10-1; Clay: 23-4) and Fed Cup (15-3) participations are included, overall win-loss record stands at 425-103.

* 2001 French Open final: lost to Jennifer Capriati, 1-6, 6-4, 12-10. The two-hour, 21-minute match featured the longest third set in a French Open women's final. Clijsters was four times within two points of winning, before Capriati prevailed. * 2002 WTA Tour Championships final: defeated Serena Williams for the first time in her career, 7-5 6-3. This was only the fifth defeat of the year for Williams and snapped her 18-match winning streak. In her run to the finals, Clijsters also defeated Venus Williams, becoming just the fourth player to beat both of the Williams sisters in the same event. She also equaled the event's record for the fewest games dropped. * 2003 Australian Open semifinal: lost to Serena Williams, 4-6, 6-3, 7-5. After defeating Williams in the WTA Tour Championships the previous year, some commentators believed that only Clijsters could prevent Williams from winning her fourth consecutive Grand Slam singles title. Clijsters led 5-1 in the third set (and held a match point at 5-2) before Williams, who was playing with an injured foot, took the match. She went on to defeat her older sister Venus in the final. * 2003 Italian Open final: defeated Amélie Mauresmo 3-6, 7-6(3), 6-0. After defeating Capriati and Serena Williams on her way to the final, Mauresmo led 6-5 in the second set and served for the championship. Clijsters, two points away from defeat, stormed back to win the set in a tiebreak, before cruising through the last set. * 2003 French Open final: lost to Justine Henin-Hardenne 6-0, 6-4. She appeared nervous during the first half of the match, and was extremely erratic. Commentators speculated she may have felt nervous about playing in such a high profile match against someone she had known since childhood. * 2003 Los Angeles final: defeated Lindsay Davenport 6-1, 3-6, 6-1 for the fourth consecutive time. By winning her sixth title of the year, Clijsters gained enough points to overtake Serena Williams and claim the top spot in women's tennis, becoming the 12th player to do so and the first one to claim the spot without winning a Grand Slam title. * 2003 Filderstadt final: defeated Justine Henin-Hardenne 5-7, 6-4, 6-2. With the number one ranking at stake, Clijsters rallied from a set down to beat her compatriot. The match marked only the eighth time that the top two players battled for the number one ranking. This was also Clijster's second victory (and first to have concluded, her previous win came when her opponent retired in 's-Hertogenbosch) against Henin in their last seven meetings. * 2003 WTA Tour Championships semifinal: defeated Capriati 4-6, 6-3, 6-0. While leading 6-4, 3-2, Capriati took an injury break, but after play resumed, she never regained her form. Clijsters won the next 10 games to claim victory and reached her second WTA Tour Championships final. In the final, she defeated Mauresmo, 6-2, 6-0, which was the most one-sided final in the tournament since Martina Navrátilová won over Chris Evert by the same score in 1983. * 2005 Indian Wells final: defeated Davenport 6-4, 4-6, 6-2. Unseeded, ranked 133 in the world, and in only her second tournament of the year after being sidelined by a wrist injury, Clijsters won seven straight games after Davenport opened up the match with a 4-0 lead. The victory was bittersweet for Clijsters, who began having problems with her wrist in the same tournament a year before. * 2005 Miami final: defeated Maria Sharapova 6-3, 7-5. Both players struggled to keep the ball in play as windy conditions prevailed throughout the match. Her victory meant that she was only the second woman to earn the Indian Wells-Miami double, after Steffi Graf. These consecutive victories (Clijsters won 14 consecutive matches) catapulted Clijsters from 133 in the world to within the top 20. As Sharapova noted, "I think the biggest surprise was that it was her 14th match and yet I didn’t feel like she was physically fatigued at all. She is a very strong girl and she can play all day. Running from corner to corner is like a piece of cake for her." Sharapova, interestingly in the following year, would come within one match of achieving the Indian Wells-Miami double (she lost the final of Miami to Kuznetsova). * 2005 U.S. Open quarterfinal: defeated Venus Williams 4-6, 7-5, 6-1. Clijsters had won only three out of the nine matches she had contested against Williams (although she had won the last one). After Williams led 6-4, 4-2, Clijsters won 11 of the next 13 games, calling her win the best since she returned to competition. * 2005 U.S. Open final: defeated Mary Pierce 6-3 6-1, to collect her one and only Grand Slam title. Prior to her victory at the U.S. Open, she had lost four grand slam finals (Once to Capriati, on the other three occasions to her countrywoman Henin-Hardenne).

*Clijsters is often considered by few critics as "too nice." In response to these critics, she replied,

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*List of female tennis players *List of Grand Slam Women's Singles champions

*Official website * *