Anti-diva Clijsters ready to run at Rogers Cup - Globe and Mail

Kim Clijsters, tennis, Rogers Cup, Rexall Centre, foot injury, Wimbledon, Grand Slam, U.S. Open, Toronto, Kim Clijsters is the anti-diva, a high-level tennis player without an attitude, the mom with a three-year-old daughter, already wise in the ways of travel.

Clijsters, already retired once, is the one with the powerful groundstroke and the deft backhand slice that helped her win the Rogers Cup in 2005, and shes back to try to do it again as the No. 2 player in the world when the event starts Aug. 6 at Rexall Centre in Toronto. Shes making Toronto her first stop after undergoing rehabilitation for injuries that kept her out of Wimbledon.

The 28-year-old Belgian had already been battling shoulder and wrist injuries when she took to dancing at her cousins wedding in April, frolicking while barefoot. It cost her dearly: a sprain and torn ligaments in her right ankle that kept her off her feet for several days. Clijsters rushed to get to the French Open, but came back too soon. Although seeded second in the tournament, Clijsters lost in the second round.

I knew I wasnt 100-per-cent ready, she said. When I got injured, it gave me a negative experience.

Then, during the second round of the Unicef Open in the Netherlands in June, Clijsters went for a drop shot, skidded to the net and stumbled on the same right ankle. She had to withdraw from Wimbledon with a completely different injury to that battered right foot, this time, a tear of the muscle that runs along the inside part of her arch from the heel to the big toe. She also suffered some bone bruising, she said.

That injury was enough to put her on crutches for a few days and in a walking boot, and although Clijsters declares she is a fast healer, its an injury that takes time to heal. Still, she said, she has three weeks to go before the tournament in Toronto, and last Thursday, she started hitting balls again. She wants to compete in Toronto without giving the injury a thought.

She is currently in New Jersey, undergoing rehabilitation. Its been boring, she said. Its been very frustrating. Im very excited to be able to [hit balls] again. She says shes now regained her motivation.

Stopping and starting isnt anything new to Clijsters, who retired from the sport in 2006 to start a family with new husband, American basketball player Brian Lynch. Their daughter was born on Feb. 27, 2008, and a year later, while training for a celebrity doubles match on Wimbledons centre court with Tim Henman, against Steffi Graf and Andre Agassi, Clijsters was inspired to come back.

In 2009, she lost at tournaments in Cincinnati and Toronto, but won the U.S. Open, becoming the first wild-card player ever to reach the final, and the only player to have defeated both Williams sisters (Venus and Serena) at the same event. And she became the first mother to win a Grand Slam title since Evonne Goolagong won Wimbledon in 1980.

Clijsters says its no picnic trying to juggle family and a career as a high-ranked tennis player. If Im away too long with my family, I know I cant focus enough on my tennis, she said. But the other way around, if Im putting the time in my tennis, I feel guilty that Im not spending time with my family. Its a balancing act.

She says she has a good support system while she is travelling.

Of the four Grand Slams Clijsters has won, three of them were at the U.S. Open. Its no secret that Clijsters is aiming for another one this year. But the Rogers Cup has been part of her schedule all along and she said it is very important to be well prepared for the Toronto event, which has attracted the top 25 players in the world.

Im going because I want to do well, she said of the Rogers Cup. Not that Im thinking about it as a prep for the U.S. Open.

She said she will focus on the U.S. Open only in the week before she goes. I will take it one tournament at a time and see how I react and how I feel.

One of her other main goals is to compete at the Olympics in London next year. Shes never competed at an Olympics before, and she likes the fact that it will be held only weeks after Wimbledon on the same surface.


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