Clijsters fights all the way
Clijsters fights all the way
by Luke Buttigieg
Saturday, January 31, 2004
No.2 seed Kim Clijsters will leave Australia in the next few days without a
maiden Grand Slam trophy, having gone down in three sets to fellow Belgian
Justine Henin-Hardenne in the Australian Open final, but she lost no admirers
along the way.
Clijsters looked headed for a disappointing straight-sets defeat in her first
final at Melbourne Park when she fell a set and 2-4 down, with Henin-Hardenne's
untouchable serve and ability to force mistakes proving the difference.
But urged on by the fans - not only because they wanted to see a close match
but also due to her strong local connection through her relationship with
Australian Lleyton Hewitt - Clijsters fought back brilliantly.
Although she levelled the match at a set all and then also recovered from
0-4 down in the decider with two more breaks, Clijsters eventually fell short
to Henin-Hardenne for a third time in as many major finals.
"I fought it really well to get back in that second set. Even in the
beginning of the third set, she hardly missed any balls. She makes you go for
so many shots which are not natural, I think, for a lot of players. She keeps
bringing them back," Clijsters explained.
"You try to go closer to the lines and then you miss a few. That's I think
where she made the biggest difference today. She brought so many balls back
that made me go a little bit out of my comfort zone."
At 3-4 in the third set and facing a break point, her cause was also not
helped by an overrule from the chair umpire that gave her opponent the
critical break, even though replays indicated that the ball may have just
clipped the baseline.
Clijsters refused to blame her defeat on the overrule, other than to admit
her obvious disappointment.
"I'm not the type of player that's going to start complaining after matches,"
Clijsters added. "That's something at the moment, very disappointing I think.
And a few people have told me that it was in."
"But I'm not going to blame the umpire or anything because everyone makes
mistakes. But of course its disappointing. You feel things when they come off
the racket, you get the experience."
"I've been playing for 12 years. As soon as I hit the ball I probably know if
it's going in or out, I definitely had the feeling it was good, but nothing I
can do about it now."
As for the fact that all three of her Grand Slam final defeats have come to
Henin-Hardenne, Clijsters added that she believes she has simply been beaten
by a better player on the day.
"I think it doesn't matter, how the score was," Clijsters said. "I mean, it's
always tough to lose them. I definitely felt like today played a lot better
than I did in the previous finals that I played against her."
"I don't think it's got anything to do with psychological at all. I think she
played really well. I think she started really well. She didn't give me a lot
of easy mistakes, and she was returning well at the crucial moments when she
had to."
"Each one is very disappointing. I wouldn't say one more than the other.
They're all disappointing. Like I said in my speech as well, I'm very lucky
to have been out there as well. At least I gave myself a shot at it," she
added of her ankle injury.
Clijsters will head home to Belgium for some practice and to try and give her
ankle time to fully heal, and even though she finished runner-up, can do so
in the knowledge that when her game is on she can compete with the best
players in the world.
--
---禪心已作沾泥絮，莫向春風舞鷓鴣---
--
※ 發信站: 批踢踢實業坊(ptt.cc)
◆ From: 140.118.122.149
NED-BEL-LUX 近期熱門文章
PTT體育區 即時熱門文章