WTA Dubai: Kim Clijsters - strong comeback of "Mother Courage" despite defeat
As expected, Kim Clijsters lost to Garbine Muguruza on her comeback on the WTA tour. Especially the end of the match gives hope for more from the Belgian.
by Jörg Allmeroth from Dubai
last edit: Feb 17, 2020, 06:50 pm
It hadn't looked good for Kim Clijsters when it was playing three-quarters of an hour in Dubai's tent roof arena. The 36-year-old Belgian was 2: 6 and 0: 3 behind at the start of her second tour comeback against Australian Open finalist Garbine Muguruza, and at that moment some of the 4,000 spectators were secretly wondering whether the idea of this new one Returning to the professional tennis business had been a really good idea.
But in the end everything was very different, even if not the result with the expected victory of Muguruza, the defeat of the triple mother at the start: Clijsters had found back to old strengths late, she had started a formidable catch-up hunt, brought Muguruza into trouble and finally with hers 2: 6, 6: 7 (6) failures made an exceptionally good figure. In short: Clijsters had not crashed to the ground, but had taken on the fight, the duel - and indicated what could be possible with a little more practice and further intensive training. The bigger applause on this evening of tennis under the floodlights definitely belonged to her, the "Mother Courage", who wants to take the risk once again to compete with the youngest and the youngest. “I'm happy with how I got out of the game. Not how it started, ”Clijsters said afterwards.
Clijsters disoriented in the first sentence
The start of this highly anticipated match was more than bumpy for the four-time Grand Slam winner, who struggled more with nerve wrenches than with her opponent. Clijsters looked disoriented a few times, and also made double mistakes at the worst moments. Muguruza had an easy game, often only had to keep the ball in play. The first sentence was only a matter of form for the Spaniard. In the middle of the second sentence, the action turned, Clijsters simply found belief in himself - and quickly showed her natural talent for the clear, pure punch. With force and precision. Suddenly the Belgian, who had shown little emotion for a long time, also cheered herself on, clenched her fist, took her fans into the game.
From the 0: 3 deficit it went to the 5: 4 lead for Clijsters, then the tie break had to decide. Clijsters was 2-0 up, then 3: 5 back. She equalized again to 5: 5, fended off a first match point. But she could no longer fend off the Spaniard's second victory point. The end was not a good one for Clijsters. But it wasn't all bad that evening, quite the contrary.