Just like Paula Radcliffe illustrated that motherhood and winning marathons are not mutually exclusive, and just like Dara Torres proved you can come back after childbirth and win Olympic medals, tennis pro Kim Clijsters shows that you can come back and be a champion as well.
Clijsters retired from tennis in 2007 and gave birth to daughter Jada Ellie at the end of February 2008 after a tennis career winning the US Open in 2005, and making it to the finals in the Australian Open and the French Open. By no means a shabby career. Unranked going into the finals of the US Open, she beat Caroline Wozniacki, ranked ninth, in straight sets 7-5, 6-3. I would say her comeback career is on! Unfortunately, her semifinal match against Serena Williams is probably more memorable than her winning match. To see how much Serena has been fined for her display of unsportsmanlike behavior read more.
Serena, whose temper has flared at the Open before, will be fined $10,000 for "unsportsmanlike conduct." She will be fined an additional $500 for "racquet abuse" — she threw her racquet at the end of the first set. Her outburst began when a line judge called a foot fault on match point, after she missed her first serve. According to CBS Sports, Serena told the line judge: "I'm going to shove this [expletive] ball down your [expletive] throat." This was accompanied by some finger jabbing toward the line judge and a swat with her racquet at the woman's general direction. What is truly unfortunate is that upon viewing tape, the foot fault call was a bad one. But due to her antics and language, Serena lost the semifinal match not so much because of a bad call but because of her behavior. The controversy didn't keep her from looking gorgeous at the VMAs though.
Kit Heath
um, her name is Kim Clijsters, not Clijster.
1Big Clijsters fan here! What a great player!
However, she only won the US Open (twice, now) and the Masters. She reached the finals but never won Wimbledon, Roland Garros or the Australian Open.
2Hooray for Clijsters! A big win, not just for her, but for mothers everywhere!!!
3Awesome win
4That's awesome for her!
And completely classless what Serena did... I mean, I can understand getting upset over a bad call, but it is tennis, and any way you shouldn't threaten judges or referees in any sport.
5syako, "but it is tennis".... what do you mean by that? tennis is her entire career!
6Feesje,
7Thanks for the correction on Kim's wins.
I think she meant "it is tennis" meaning it's not the kind of sport where it's okay to go nuts at the ref? That's how I took it, and it's true. If you're going to lose your temper play rugby is something!
8Yes. Tennis is pretty classy and there's a lot of etiquette involved. You could maybe get away with this in the NFL (maybe!) but not in tennis.
9Ack, play rugby or something.
When I first heard about this I was surprised because yeah, tennis is not the kind of game where you hear about bad behavior from the players.
10Why was my comment removed Fit?
11As a Dane I couldn't be more proud of Caroline Wozniaki! it is amazing that she was in her first grand slam finale at such a young age - she is definitly one to watch!
12Post New Comment
Please share your opinion with our community, but make sure it is on topic and follows our Community Rules. We moderate comments and prohibit personal attacks, threats, spam, lewd images, or the promotion of your personal website.