Kim Clijsters

Kim Antonie Lode Clijsters (born 8 June 1983) is a Belgian former professional tennis player.

Kim Clijsters was born on 8 June 1983 in Bilzen, a small town in northeastern Belgium.

She grew up with her younger sister Elke in the nearby town of Bree in the Flemish province of Limburg.

Kim is the daughter of Lei Clijsters and Els Vandecaetsbeek, both of whom were accomplished athletes.

Her mother Els was a Belgian national artistic gymnastics champion.

Her father Lei was a professional football defender who played for a variety of clubs in the top-flight Belgian First Division, including KV Mechelen with whom he won the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup in 1988.

He was also a member of the Belgium national football team, tallying 40 caps and competing in two World Cups.

Clijsters credits her parents for giving her a footballer's legs and a gymnast's flexibility.

She also attributes her success to the freedom they gave her when she was a young player, saying, "Without the support I've had from my family, I wouldn't be where I am. They've let me make my own decisions."

When Clijsters was five years old, her father built a clay tennis court at their home as a gift to his daughter to celebrate him winning the 1988 Gouden Schoen, an award given to the player of the year in the Belgian First Division.

He had previously announced the idea of the gift as a celebration of the award during a television interview.

Clijsters began playing tennis earlier that year after attending a lesson with her cousins and her uncle while her parents were away.

From then on, she became fixated on the sport.

She began playing with her sister at the Tennisdel club in Genk by the time she was seven.

Her first coach Bart Van Kerckhoven recalled that she was extremely energetic and never wanted to leave the tennis court, adding that, "If the group before her did some sprints to finish off the session, Kim would join in. Then she put her heart and soul into her own training session, after which she joined the next group for their warm-up exercises."

At the age of nine, Clijsters began working with Benny Vanhoudt in the more distant town of Diest.

Along with her sister, she trained for fifteen hours a week, including five hours of individual instruction, which Vanhoudt said was "an insane amount [of total hours]."

She continued to train in Diest until she was twelve.

During this time, she also first worked with Carl Maes and Wim Fissette, both of whom would coach Clijsters later in her professional career.

When she was thirteen, Maes took over as her primary coach at the Flemish Tennis Association in Antwerp.

Clijsters had success at both the national and international levels at a very young age.

Clijsters competed professionally from 1997 in an era in which her primary rivals were compatriot Justine Henin and Serena Williams.

Coming from a country with limited success in men's or women's tennis, Clijsters became the first Belgian player to attain the No. 1 ranking.

Together with Henin, she established Belgium as a leading force in women's tennis as the two of them led their country to their first Fed Cup crown in 2001 and were the top two players in the world in late 2003.

Individually, Clijsters won 41 singles titles and 11 doubles titles on the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) Tour.

She was a three-time winner of the WTA Tour Championships.

Between singles and doubles, she has been a champion at all four Grand Slam tournaments, winning the US Open and the Australian Open in singles and Wimbledon and the French Open in doubles partnering Ai Sugiyama.

Her success at the majors was highlighted by winning three consecutive appearances at the US Open.

Clijsters reached the world No. 1 ranking in both singles and doubles, having held both rankings simultaneously in 2003.

She won six major titles, four in singles and two in doubles.

Plagued by injuries and having lost some of her desire to compete, Clijsters retired from tennis in 2007 at the age of 23 in order to get married and have a daughter.

She returned to the sport two years later and won her second US Open title as an unranked player in just her third tournament back.

She defended her title the following year and then won the Australian Open in 2011 en route to becoming the first mother to be the world No. 1. Along with Margaret Court, she also holds the record for most Grand Slam singles titles won as a mother, with three such titles, and was the first to win one since Evonne Goolagong Cawley in 1980.

Clijsters retired again following the 2012 US Open.

She was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2017.

Seven years later, she began a second comeback in early 2020, ending in 2022.

Clijsters was born to athletic parents with backgrounds in professional football and gymnastics.

She was renowned for her athleticism, which was highlighted by her ability to perform splits on court in the middle of points.

She built the offensive side of her game around controlled aggression while also using her exceptional movement to become an elite defensive player.

Clijsters was very popular and well-liked as a player, having won the Karen Krantzcke Sportsmanship Award eight times.