Translated material
Return point
Belgian Kim Clijsters is back on the tennis court
This week marks two major tennis tournaments from the US Open Series, which precedes the US Open. Women compete for the championship title in Cincinnati, and men compete at the Masters in Montreal. Both of these tournaments marked the return of former world No. 1s. Spaniard Rafael Nadal will take to the court after missing two months due to injury. And Belgian Kim Clijsters appeared before the public last night, Moscow time, after a two-year break due to the birth of her daughter.The Belgian had previously played a purely symbolic match on a miniature court with Russian Elena Dementieva in Ohio, in the royal park with fountains. In this unusual way, the BTA leadership celebrated the return of the former world number one. Clijsters admitted that she did not expect such a situation: the match was played on a special podium surrounded by splashes of water.
Clijsters' first opponent in Cincinnati was Frenchwoman Marion Bartoli. Whatever the result of this meeting, it is probably not worth attaching serious importance to, since the 26-year-old Belgian woman, who gave birth to a daughter a year and a half ago, believes that her athletic form is far from its previous condition. Nevertheless, in conversations with reporters, Clijsters emphasized that she wanted to get on the court as soon as possible. “I worked a lot on physics, but I’m still far from my former condition, so there’s no point in concentrating on the results,” the athlete noted philosophically.
On a trip to the United States, where the tennis player has already been for several months, she is accompanied by a whole team, which includes her husband, Brian Lynch, a former professional basketball player, two coaches, one of whom is responsible for physical training, a doctor, a journalist, a nanny and a friend. Clijsters prepared for the American performances in Belmar, whose sheriff was Richard Lynch, Kim's father-in-law, in fact in her American home.
Despite all the reservations that few tennis players who became mothers managed to rise to the top of the tennis Olympus again, many are awaiting the appearance of Clijsters with great interest. Considering the situation that has developed in women's tennis today, it is possible that the Belgian will be able to enter the same river for a second time. After all, she has 34 won tournaments under her belt, including a victory at the US Open, dating back to 2005.
The tournament in Cincinnati with a prize fund of $2 million brought together almost all the leading tennis players. With the exception of Russian Maria Sharapova, who after her performance in Los Angeles decided to take a short time out. This week, former world number one Sharapova returned to the top 50 tennis players in the WTA rankings. According to the updated list, she rose 12 positions and settled in 49th place.
This move in the women's rankings was made possible thanks to the Russian woman's successful performance at the tournament in Los Angeles, where she reached the semifinals. In the match against Italian Flavia Pennetta, Sharapova was unable to defeat her opponent, who eventually won the tournament. As Sharapova said after the match, she did not feel fresh and was surprised by how events developed in the third set. “I had chances to win, but I didn’t take advantage of them. I still have a lot of work to do,” Maria said self-critically about her performance.
In turn, Pennetta also pointed out the large number of mistakes made by Sharapova. True, she did not hide the fact that she herself was not up to par. The Italian did not have a good first serve, and she earned points solely thanks to the second. According to the Italian, the match against the Russian turned out to be very difficult. And yet she was able to bring it to a victorious end - 6:2, 4:6, 6:3.
The title Pennetta won in Los Angeles was the eighth of her career and the second this year, following the tournament in Palermo. However, it is worth noting that on the eve of the US Open, many athletes prefer to take breaks from their performances. Thus, the Williams sisters and Frenchwoman Marion Bartoli did not come to California. Although even without them, the lineup of participants was quite representative - Russians Dinara Safina, Vera Zvonareva, Nadezhda Petrova, Serbian Ana Ivanovich and others. The first racket of the women's ranking, Dinara Safina, unexpectedly lost in the third round to Chinese Zheng Jie, who later admitted that she gave 110%. And our three other athletes, Petrova, Zvonareva and Sharapova, suffered at the hands of Pennetta. In the final, the Italian beat Australian Samantha Stosur - 6:4, 6:3. By the way, the representative of the Green Continent became the object of close attention after her successful performance at Roland Garros.
As for the men, in parallel with the women's tournament in Los Angeles, competitions were held in Washington. The winner was Argentinean Juan Martin del Potro, who defeated court host Andy Roddick in the final - 3:6, 7:5, 7:6 (8:6). The Russians performed unsuccessfully at this tournament. Igor Kunitsyn, Mikhail Youzhny, Igor Andreev and Dmitry Tursunov lost in their second round matches.
This week the elite of world tennis moved to Montreal. One of the main events of the competition will be the appearance of the former world number one, Spaniard Rafael Nadal. However, as the tennis player himself stated, after a course of treatment for his knees, he has not yet fully recovered, and he does not set himself the goal of winning the US Open. “My goal for the coming weeks is to train hard and play well in Montreal and Cincinnati. I will be prepared for the US Open, but I don’t have much time to get into optimal positions,” Nadal said.