Kim Clijsters hoped to celebrate her new world number one ranking with a place in the Australian Open final. Instead she hobbled from Melbourne Park on crutches bemoaning the low point of her career.
After coaxing her battered body to take her as far as the final four of the tournament, second seed Clijsters finally succumbed to injury in Thursday’s semifinal with Frenchwoman Amelie Mauresmo.
Just one day after regaining the top ranking from Lindsay Davenport, Clijsters twisted her ankle on the Rebound Ace surface and was unable to continue.
A dejected Clijsters, who lost the final here in 2004, said conceding so close to a Grand Slam final was a low point of her career.
”Definitely,” she said. ”I really felt like if I kept playing the way I was going that anything could have happened — of course it’s frustrating.
”That’s why I’m going to try to go to hospital as soon as possible to know what’s going on,” the US Open champion told reporters before hobbling away on crutches for an ankle scan.
”It’s very frustrating because I felt like in that third set, I was really getting into it.”
The 23-year-old refused to blame the surface, which becomes sticky in intense heat and has been criticised by some players.
”I’m not that kind of player,” she said. ”The court is the same for every player out there, I’m not going to complain about the court — we’re all here, we’re all playing on the same surface.”
Clijsters scored a breakthrough win at Flushing Meadows last year to bury the tag of Grand Slam choker she earned after losing the decider at four majors.
She had believed she was a good chance of adding to the trophy cabinet after hitting the form of her career last year, only to pick up a hip injury at the Sydney warm-up tournament that aggravated an existing back condition.
Limping through with painkillers and heavy padding on her thigh, she survived a testing three-setter against Martina Hingis in the quarters and felt her game was clicking before crashing on centre court on Thursday.
”It’s been up and down throughout this week, very frustrating,” she said. – Sapa-AFP