Open after defeating both Venus and Serena Williams and then

Kim Clijsters Reflects on Career Ahead of Hall of Fame Induction

When canada goose uk shop Kim Clijsters looks Canada Goose Parka back https://www.getcanadagooseoutlet.ca on her tennis career, there is no shortage of highlights: three United States Open championships, a 2011 Australian Open title and the world No. 1 ranking. But one match above all buy canada goose jacket still produces goose bumps.

“How many people, at age 17, get canada goose to cheap Canada Goose play Steffi Graf in what cheap canada goose uk turns canada goose factory sale out to be her final Grand Slam?” Clijsters said on the eve of her induction into the International Tennis Hall of Fame, canada goose coats recalling her improbable matchup against Graf in the fourth round of Wimbledon canada goose coats on sale in 1999.

She continued: “It was unbelievable. All I wanted to do was watch her. I wanted to see how she tied her shoelaces, what her ponytail looked like, how she carried her bag. Even though I lost, the impact of that and the motivation canada goose store it gave Canada Goose Outlet me was huge. Open champion and former world No. 1; Monique Kalkman, the eight time wheelchair World Team Cup winner; the journalist Steve Flink; and Vic Braden, a coach who uk canada goose outlet died in 2014.

“I say, if uk canada goose you have a problem with Kim, I blame you without even hearing both sides of the story,” canada goose clearance sale said Roddick, seated alongside his Canada Goose online fellow inductee in the Hall of Fame’s museum. Open Canada Goose Online in 2012. When she returned nearly two years later, she was mother to a buy canada goose jacket cheap daughter, Jada. Open after defeating both Venus and Serena Williams and then Caroline Wozniacki in the final. Open Canada Goose sale history and the first mother to capture a major tournament since Evonne Goolagong Cawley won Wimbledon in 1980.

Clijsters defended her title the next year, amassing a 21 match winning streak at Flushing Meadows. In 2011 she regained the No. 1 ranking before retiring the next year.

Clijsters said she was delighted to see how many current players had returned to the tour after having children, including Victoria Azarenka, Casey Canada Goose sale Dellacqua, canadian goose jacket Kateryna Bondarenko, Cara Black and Evgeniya Rodina. Serena Williams plans to do the same next year, following the birth of her first child.

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“I’m a Canada Goose Jackets little different from Serena and Vika because when I retired I thought I was done,” Clijsters said. “I didn’t plan to play tennis again, but it just happened. I’m so happy for these players and I’m amazed canada goose uk black friday at how passionate Serena still is about her tennis. But I also hope they all enjoy the experience of being a first time mom and not rush into anything.”

Clijsters is mother to 9 year old Jada (who has no memory of dancing around the Arthur Ashe Stadium court and clutching her mother’s trophy after Clijsters’s win in 2009), 3 year old Jack and 9 month old Blake. Jada prefers basketball to tennis, and Jack has flirted with soccer, “but he preferred to sit on the ground and pick dandelions,” his canada goose uk outlet mother said, laughing. She also owns a tennis academy in Belgium, does some television commentary and plays the occasional Legends event.

It was during one such event, at Wimbledon two weeks ago, that Clijsters became an internet sensation. Playing with Rennae Stubbs against Conchita canada goose clearance Martnez and Andrea Jaeger, Clijsters decided to spice up the action by eliciting a dialogue with fans seated courtside.

After serving an ace to Jaeger, she asked the crowd where she should hit her next serve. A fan named Chris Quinn suggested a body serve, prompting Clijsters to invite him down to receive such a serve. She even lent him a regulation white Canada Goose Coats On Sale skirt from her own bag, falling to the court in peals of laughter as he struggled into the clothes.

“What went through my mind was that I was pulling up the pants of my 3 year old, but this was a grown man with huge calves,” Clijsters said.

Kim Clijsters gives man tennis skirt for hit at Wimbledon 2017 Video by Wimbledon

The magnitude of being elected the Hall of Fame is not lost on Clijsters, who will have many family members on hand for the ceremony. But she will be missing her father, Leo, who died of cancer in January 2009.