After shocking the tennis world by announcing a 2020 comeback and then postponing it because of a knee injury, Kim Clijsters updates us on her current health and shares her planned schedule for the upcoming season.
More than seven years after her second retirement, the former world No.1, four-time Grand Slam champion and a member of the International Tennis Hall of Fame will kick off the third leg of her decorated career at the Monterrey Open in March, followed by the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, a tournament she won twice, and the Volvo Car Open in Charleston, which will be her first claycourt event since 2011.
I’ve had a really good last couple of weeks regarding my knee that’s feeling much better. It’s not fully healed yet, but I’m definitely building up my intensity and practice and it feels really good. So, I look forward to playing my first tournament, practice has been long enough, but I have to be patient for a few more weeks and then I’ll be ready to go.
Being a former major champion, Clijsters is allowed to receive unlimited wildcard invitations to events, while as someone who is older than 30 this mom of three children can enjoy a flexible schedule which gives her the privilege to opt out of mandatory appearances at certain tournaments.
Clijsters first quit tennis in 2007 to get married and have her first child. Then she returned about two years later and won her second and third US Opens and an Australian Open before retiring again in 2012.
