11/08/02
Kim Clijsters became the first major casualty of the Los Angeles Open when she was surprisingly defeated by Katarina Srebotnik.
Clijsters, the tournament's fifth seed, got off to a sluggish start against the Slovenian and could not recover, losing 6-4 2-6 6-4.
The Belgian struggled to find her range or match the superior speed of her opponent throughout the second-round contest.
And despite a brief respite, in which she took the second set, she fell apart once more in a tense deciding set.
"This is my biggest win," said Srebotnik. "This proves I can play and beat the top 10 girls."
Clijsters, the runner-up in the French Open last year, blamed the loss on fatigue.
"I'm getting tired," she said. "I need a few days off. I made a lot of mistakes with my backhand."
02/08/02
Kim lost the Quarters of Venus at the acuraclassic in a termendous match, 6-3 5-7 6-4 in the advantage of Venus, it was the 2nd meeting of 2 weeks, both times with Venus on the winning hand. Earlier, Kim defeated Maleeva & Daniilidou in an easy way...
29/07/02
Kim lost the final of the bank of the West Classic to Venus with 6-3, 6-3...
27/07/02
Defending champion Kim Clijsters made a stirring comeback against Lindsay Davenport to reach the final of the Bank of the West Classic.
The fourth seeded Belgian appeared to be on her way out when Davenport, playing in her first tournament in eight months after injury, broke her for a 4-2 lead in the second set having already won the first set.
But Clijsters then stepped up a gear and hit back to claim a 4-6 6-4 6-2 victory and set up a final clash with top seed Venus Williams, who overwhelmed Lisa Raymond 6-3 6-0.
"I just kept going for my shots," said Clijsters, who beat Davenport in the final here last year. I was so focused I didn't even realise what the score was."
Davenport said: "I felt really in control up until 4-2 but once I started thinking about that, my level dropped off a lot. I didn't play badly, she played really well and hung in there."
Williams was dominant throughout he victory, sending down nine aces. "I felt very comfortable with my serve," Williams said, "It's a strong part of my game and today it was really effective."
Clijsters admitted that she would have to play aggressively to beat Williams. "If she plays her best to it will be tough," said Clijsters.
27/06/02
Clijsters Crumbles in 2nd Round
Mike Donovan
Kim Clijsters became the first major ladies' seed to be knocked out of Wimbledon today when she was defeated 7-6 (7-5), 6-2 by Elena Likhovtseva of Russia.
The fifth seed had hoped to complete a Belgian victory double on No.2 Court following compatriot Justine Henin's straight sets win over Denisa Chladkova in the previous match.
But Clijsters was out of sorts from the start, as boyfriend Lleyton Hewitt completed a second round victory over Gregory Carraz on Centre Court. Last year's quarter-finalist was broken in the fifth game of the opening set. It was a toss-up between Clijsters and a glum fan sporting a Belgian football shirt as to who was the more miserable.
But she broke back immediately and forced the set into a tie-break. Clijsters led the tie-break 5-3 but then lost the next four points to leave herself with a mountain to climb.
Her 26-year-old Russian opponent, world ranked 48, sensed it could be her day. While Clijsters went on to produce 20 unforced errors, Likhovtseva grew in confidence and broke the Belgian player for a 3-1 lead.
Clijsters put in one last big effort and managed to break back. But it was clear she was a spent force as Likhovtseva opened up a 4-2 advantage. Clijsters was going down and down, with her game continuing to fall apart. The Russian player completed the job by breaking Clijsters again on a second match point.
Likhovtseva later revealed her tactics. "My coach told me to be aggresive with Kim because otherwise she will put so much pressure on me," she said. "I just tried to take my chances and go down the line and make her run. I was concentrating on trying to return her serve and trying to make the deep returns. She was struggling with her forehand a lot."
Clijsters admitted: "I just played an opponent today who played better than me and made less unforced errors. I had a lot of chances to break in the first set. I didn't take those chances."
25/06/02
Clijsters Works Hard to beat Reeves
Barry Newcombe
Kim Clijsters, the fifth seeded Belgian, had to work hard to beat the 77th ranked American Samantha Reeves in a 90 minute first round match on Court 18.
Clijsters,who was quarter-finalist at The Championships last year, won 6-2 7-6 (7-5) and the tenacious play of Reeves meant that Clijsters had little chance of an easy victory.
In the first set, Clijsters broke serve in the third game, missed three break points at 3-1 and broke again for 5-2 before serving out for a one set lead with her third ace of the day.
Reeves, in her second appearance in The Championships, closed the gap well in the second set but missed three break points in in the sixth game and had to save two herself in the seventh.
The match progressed to a tie-break which Cljisters won by seven points to five on her first match point.
"I didn't feel very comfortable on my return games. I served well today, and that helped me to get out of some breakpoints," she said. "Definitely today wasn't my best tennis, but it was good enough to go through."
