By Richard Pagliaro

Photo: Tony Chang/Chang Photography

(March 15, 2010) INDIAN WELLS — Kim Clijsters won the style points. Alisa Kleybanova won the pivotal points.

In a match of major momentum swings, Kleybanova reeled off seven straight points in the third-set tie breaker to send two-time champion Clijsters out of the BNP Paribas Open, 6-4, 1-6, 7-6(4), in a two-hour, 36-minute slugfest.

"I definitely think I let it get is way," Clijsters said.  "Credit to her.  She played some really good points to get back into it.  I think a lot of times I felt like the better I started moving her around, the more she she's really good on the run and she really gets those angles where she kept me under pressure. I tried to come in a couple times.  A few times it worked.  You know, another few really important points she came up with good passing shot or she hit a really good backhand down the line.  I think that's where I maybe took my foot off the acceleration a little bit. "

Clijsters' exit came a few hours after third-seeded Victoria Azarenka was dumped from the draw. Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez stopped Azarenka, 7-6(4), 6-2.

It was the seventh straight victory for the streaking Kleybanova, who defeated Elena Dementieva, 6-3, 6-2, to capture her first WTA Tour title in Kuala Lumpur last month. Kleybanova was born in Moscow, but has trained at the IMG Bollettieri Academy in Bradenton, Florida speaks perfect English and was beaming after tonight's victory.

"I'm very proud of myself that I've been, you know, really strong at the most important moments, and I could pull it through and finish the match," Kleybanova said. "Because obviously in the tiebreaker after 4-0, every point was tough to win.  It was not like, you know, she missed six or seven balls in a row.  It was very difficult. So I'm very proud that I was there and I played very, very clean and focused seven points in a row."



Striking shots with the force of a woman intent on bruising the ball, Kleybanova will play Carla Suarez Navarro for a place in the quarterfinals. Suarez Navarro, who toppled top-seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova in the second round, rode her brilliant one-handed backhand to a 6-4, 3-6, 6-1 triumph over 27th-seeded Agnes Szavay earlier.

The Kleybanova-Suarez Navarro match is scheduled for Tuesday night, which should give the 23rd-seeded Russian time to recover from tonight's two hour, 36-minute match. It's a match Kleybanova, who hits much harder, believes will be in her hands.

"It's a completely different player with a different type of tennis. I played against Carla couple of times in the juniors and also in the pro circuit," Kleybanova said. "But, you know, that was quite a while ago.  So, you know, we've been improving a lot since then.  So you never know what's going to happen.  I'm just going to try to go out there and play my game.  Because, as, you know, it's really depending a lot on how I'm going to play in this match, because I think I need to really dictate my game, my power, my speed, and then, you know, we see what happens."

Clijsters was up a break in the third set, but could not sustain it. She jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the tie breaker on the strength of a forehand winner and three straight Kleybanova errors.

The finish line was three points away but Clijsters could not close. Kleybanova found her range and continued to fire away.



The 14th-seeded Belgian is the fourth former World No. 1 who failed to reach the fourth round. Belgian wild card Justine Henin lost to 31st-seeded Gisela Dulko in the second round, Maria Sharapova was ousted in the third round by Jie Zheng and 2008 champion Ana Ivanovic lost to Anastasija Sevastova.

Kleybanova is a power player capable of cracking the ball off both forehand and backhand. She pushed Clijsters into the corners in pursuit to collect the first set, but the two-time US Open champion rolled through the second to level the match. Kleybanova has a briefer backswing on her backhand and can redirect her forehand with pace, which made it difficult for Clijsters to decipher the direction of her shot.

"I also find it hard to read her game.  She has not an easy technique to read, just because... I think she hits the ball late a lot of times, especially on the wide shots," Clijsters said. "It's very hard to read. That's to her credit.  I mean, for her, a bigger girl, I think she moves really well.  And I think especially with that serve, I think she mixes up."




Standing 5-foot-11, Kleybanova is a big woman who has faded in three setters in the past. She lost her first five three-setters of this season, but has now won her last four three-set matches and said she feels stronger.

"Last year I've been really working a lot on my fitness and my conditioning, because in a couple of years the tennis has really grown up," Kleybanova said. "Everybody is so strong now.  It's no more, so, like, easy matches...

"But if you're physically strong, you know that mentally you can just keep fighting, fighting, running through every ball.  Then you can, you know, even if you're not playing your best, you can go with the physical conditioning, not just like, you know, playing unbelievable balls and making winners every second shot. Sometimes it doesn't work.  And if you are strong, if you're mentally there, you can just keep fighting and still pull out the matches like that."