Melbourne, Jan 23 (DPA) After a shock third round exit, Kim Clijsters is hoping that one of her Belgian women compatriots wins the Australian Open.
US Open winner Clijsters, only back last summer from a brief retirement, won just a single game in a 52-minute match against Russian Nadia Petrova Friday.
Asked who she now supports, the 26-year-old had no hesitation: “Any Belgian. Even (US Open semi-finalist) Yanina (Wickmayer). I have a lot of friends on tour. There’s a lot of girls I would (now) like to see win it. Of course, if it would be a Belgian, that would be nice.”
Wickmayer, suffering back problems, and Justine Henin, who is also back after having left the game, are still flying the flag for the European nation.
Clijsters remains puzzled by her complete lack of form against Petrova.
“I was just questioning myself out there a lot. I was really trying to, at the same time, turn it around. You don’t really know: why is this all of a sudden happening?” she asked.
“You just try to stay calm. There were points where I really, like, wanted to break my racquet into pieces, but you know that’s not going to help either. At some points I was just happy I was hitting a ball in. That’s how bad it was.”
rounak