Clijsters victory unable to stop the pain
MELBOURNE, Jan 17 (Reuters) - Kim Clijsters said she was still in agony from a
hip problem she sustained a week ago despite winning her opening match at the
Australian Open on Tuesday.
The Belgian easily accounted for South Korea's Cho Yoon-Jeong 6-3 6-0 but said
the result only masked the excruciating pain she was in.
"It was actually worse at the end, but I got through, that's the most important
thing," she told reporters.
"I knew that before I started I wasn't going to be able to play like I usually
can, move freely."
The world number two almost withdrew from the first grand slam of the season
after injuring herself while warming up in Sydney last week.
She needed painkillers just to get on the court on Tuesday and although she
cruised to victory in less than an hour, there was no respite from the agony
she was experiencing.
"It hurts a lot. There's moments where it hurts. There's moments where it
doesn't. So I just have to protect it," she said.
"I knew that. I was just trying to get the best out of myself with the way that
I physically can, that's all I'm going to try to do."
Clijsters had no problems with her groundstroke, reeling off winners from both
sides, but could not run from side to side as swiftly as normally does and was
grimacing every time she served.
"It's actually with the ball toss, bringing it upwards, then leaning back with
the back and then like doing the explosive stuff, where you get the power from,
" she said.
"Luckily, I have pretty strong arms. I can sort of compensate a little bit like
that. If I can't rotate or use my full body weight, which every other player
normally does, you use your movement and your body to produce power in your
strokes.
"I'm doing a lot just with my arm in a lot of positions. That's something that
is probably not the perfect way to play tennis. But for me that's good enough
now."
Despite her obvious discomfort, Clijsters, who was runner-up at the Australian
Open in 2004 and is one of the favourites to win this time after capturing the
U.S. Open last year, said she was confident of continuing in the tournament.
"I was very happy to get through today," she said.
"The next match will be tough but hopefully it can get better.
"Hopefully I stay positive and things won't be too bad tomorrow because it
wasn't physically too tough today. That's the positive thing about today's
match."
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