Kim Clijsters, Belgian tennis player and a former world number one, has announced her immediate retirement from the sport via her personal website on Sunday. With this announcement, she has cut short her plans to retire at the end of the season.
Recurring injuries taking a toll on her body have forced Clijsters to retire at just 23. She wrote on her web diary:
The recurring injuries, having difficulty in getting out of bed in the morning, needing about an hour to get all the muscles warmed up, the demanding preparations of the marriage with Brian... It all makes things a bit difficult to keep on going.
Clijsters, who has won 34 WTA singles titles in her career including the US Open in 2005, has said that her retirement is immediate and that she plans for a ‘new life.’ Her playing career, beset with injuries, spanned for over a decade. She was Belgium’s first tennis player to reach No. 1. She held the top spot for 19 weeks in 2003. She was often unlucky in Grand Slam Finals - losing in 2001 and 2003 at the French Open, in 2003 at the U.S. Open, and in 2004 at the Australian Open.
She wanted to bow out at the Porsche Grand Prix in Stuttgart, Germany in October. Instead, she has called it quits after being eliminated in the first round of the Warsaw WTA event this week, at the hands of Ukrainian qualifier Julia Vakulenko.
Last time, Clijsters claimed a WTA title was in Sydney, January this year. Her last match on home turf was the final at the Diamond Games in February, where she lost the final to Amelie Mauresmo. Ranked No. 4 currenly, she looks set for life after tennis with her impending marriage to Brian Lynch, a former Villanova basketball player.
Here are few excerpts from her web diary:
I could have easily gone on and still reel in the four major big earners (three Grand Slams and the Masters). Money is important, but not the most important in my life. Health and happiness are so much more key to life.
So I won’t be playing at Luxemburg or Stuttgart anymore, even though I promised the people over there I would. I can still live up to promises by visiting them then, but right now, it is time for a new life. Time for marrying. Children? Time for cooking and playing with the dogs. And above all time for my family and friends...
But I won’t leave without saying goodbye to you all (her fans) and I will invite you all to a big party in September.
Source: Tennis
