By Alberto Amalfi | Thursday, September 12, 2019
Former world No. 1 and mother of three Kim Clijsters announces she will return to the WTA Tour in 2020.
Photo credit: Kim Clijsters Facebook
Get ready for Mission Kimpossible the sequel.
Kim Clijsters has made tennis mom history before. Now, the Hall of Famer is gearing up to do it all again.
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Former world No. 1 Clijsters announce she will return to the WTA Tour in 2020.
The 36-year-old mom to kids Jada, Jack and Blake, too to Twitter to share the news of her return.
"For the past seven years, I've been a full-time mom," Clijsters said in a video she posted to Twitter. "And I love it. I really, really do. But I also loved being a professional tennis player. And honestly, I miss that feeling.
"So what if I tried to do both?"
A full 21 years after she debuted on the pro circuit in 1999, Clijsters is pumped to face the challenge of a comeback.
“I have friends who would say, I want to run the New York Marathon before I turn 50," Clijsters told WTA Insider Courtney Nguyen in an exclusive interview. "For me, I still love to play tennis. The love for the sport is obviously still there. But the question still is, am I capable of bringing it to a level where I would like it to be at and where I want it to be at before I want to play at a high level of one of the best women's sports in the world.
"I don't feel like I need to prove anything, but I want to challenge myself and I want to be strong again. This is my marathon. This is where I'm saying OK, let's try this."
The woman nicknamed Kimpossible is attempting the improbable, but Clijsters has mastered the art of the comeback in the past.
In 2007, Clijsters initially retired at age 23 due to chronic injury and her desire to start a family with husband and former pro basketball player Brian Lynch. Clijster gave birth to daughter Jada in February of 2008.
In 2009, in just the third tournament of her comeback, Clijsters stunned the world winning the US Open as an unranked wild card.
The athletic baseliner famed for her sliding splits knocked off Venus Williams, Li Na, Serena Williams and Caroline Wozniacki en route to that magical motherly 2009 US Open title and famously celebrated with daughter Jada on court.
Clijsters became the first mother to win a Grand Slam title since Aussie legend Evonne Goolagong in 1980.
The next year, playing with the speed of a dutiful mom determined to get her daughter home for bed time, Clijsters crushed Vera Zvonareva, 6-2, 6-1 to capture her third US Open championship.
It was the most lopsided women's final since Chrissie Evert dismantled Goolagong, 6-3, 6-0, in the 1976 final and the shortest women's final since the USTA has timed title matches (in some pre-Open Era years players did not sit down on changeovers, resulting in finals that lasted less than an hour).
The owner of 41 career WTA singles titles says her biggest concern is how will her body respond after having three kids and spending recent years without a regular training routine.
"Let's see if I can get my body in shape to play tennis at a level where I would like it to be at, that I have in mind of where I would like to get to, and see if it's possible,” Clijsters told Courtney Nguyen. “To see, first of all, if my body is capable of even doing that."
One of the few players in Open Era history to hold the world No. 1 ranking in singles and doubles simultaneously, Clijsters was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2017.