Clijsters close to regaining #1

[Noelle]

If Kimmy regains #1 and ends the year with it, she'll be the first in years who's also won a Slam within the calendar year.

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/9578596/

Clijsters close to regaining No. 1
But Belgian must beat Dementieva, Mauresmo at Porsche Grand Prix

Daniela Hantuchova beat Meghann Shaughnessy 6-4, 6-0 Monday at the Porsche Grand Prix, where Kim Clijsters is in position to regain the No. 1 ranking.

Clijsters, ranked No. 2, and top-seeded Lindsay Davenport will close within a few points of Maria Sharapova’s top ranking with a strong showing. Sharapova is injured and pulled out of the indoor tournament, which features four of the world’s top five players.

Hantuchova, who reached the Filderstadt final in 2002 and was ranked fifth in 2003, has broken out of a slump and is back to No. 20.

The WTA said Clijsters most likely will pass Sharapova if she beats fourth-ranked Amelie Mauresmo and eighth-ranked Elena Dementieva on the way to reaching the final. Clijsters, the tour’s hottest player, won the U.S. Open and is 26-1 since a fourth-round loss to Davenport at Wimbledon.

The top ranking has changed hands six times at the event, which traditionally boasts one of the tour’s strongest fields.

 

[Objective Danny]

In a few weeks Classy Kim Clijsters will be the Number One Ranked Player in the World. Good for her. She is GREAT for the sport.

 

[LendlFan]

Do you think dumping Hewitt was good for her game? It appears after the two major events being her injury and the breakup of Hewitt, she's come back with new found determination.

 

[Northerly]

I wonder if a player has ever started the year ranked outside the Top 100 and made it to number 1??? It would surely have to be a first.

 

[opiate]

I wonder if a player has ever started the year ranked outside the Top 100 and made it to number 1??? It would surely have to be a first.

it would also get the whole ITF gaming/gambling/drugs department crawling all over 'em...

 

[Tenny]

If Kimmy regains #1 and ends the year with it, she'll be the first in years who's also won a Slam within the calendar year.

It would be very nice. I like her.

 

[Virtuous]

Good for Kimmie, her or Lindsay would be the best #1s for me

 

[breakfast_of_champions]

If Kimmy regains #1 and ends the year with it, she'll be the first in years who's also won a Slam within the calendar year.


coulda swore jhh won a slam and finished #1 two years ago in 2003.

 

[The tennis guy]

If Kimmy regains #1 and ends the year with it, she'll be the first in years who's also won a Slam within the calendar year.

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/9578596/

JHH won two slam titles and finished as No. 1 only in 2003.

 

[Kevin Patrick]

yeah what he said.

 

[LendlFan]

I wonder if a player has ever started the year ranked outside the Top 100 and made it to number 1??? It would surely have to be a first.

Good question, Andre Agassi was the first person in Tennis History to climb from #141 to #6 within one year.

 

[Docalex007]

K Clijsters is my favorite WTA player. I knew as soon as she got back in the mix that she would just take over. She's good......really good. She should move up to ATP. ....no really, please stay WTA and keep whooping Sharapova please.

 

[Noelle]

I know, I know. Two years counts as "years". So my statement is still grammatically correct. But yes, the Belgians seem to be the ones backing up the #1 year-end ranking with a Slam title.

 

[LendlFan]

I think it's pretty funny how so many people are jumping on the Clijster's Bandwagon now that she stopped choking on the Big One ..
(no pun intended)

Kim has always been a great Player for WTA standards but I'm thinking a fit focused Lindsay Davenport or a match tough ready for bear Venus Williams or a intuned back up to her level of play Justine Hennin can all beat Kim Clijster.

 

[DashaandSafin]

I still thought she was excellent even before she stopped choking on the big one .
She is a legit no.1.

 

[LendlFan]

I still thought she was excellent even before she stopped choking on the big one .
She is a legit no.1.

I agree and now that she's felt the glory of winning a Major Title, she will be tougher to beat. Nothing like a having a Slam trophy to boost one's confidence although beating Mary Pierce is not the greatest of victories.

Now when Kim defeats Davenport, Williams, Hennin or Sharapova to win a Major, I will truly be impressed. An unforced error ridden sluggish Venus Williams was Kim's toughest victory at the USO. The only Seeded Players she met were #30 Sugiyama, #10 Venus Williams and #12 Mary Pierce. Not what I would call any real battles.

 

[Moda]

Now when Kim defeats Davenport, Williams, Hennin or Sharapova to win a Major, I will truly be impressed. An unforced error ridden sluggish Venus Williams was Kim's toughest victory at the USO. The only Seeded Players she met were #30 Sugiyama, #10 Venus Williams and #12 Mary Pierce. Not what I would call any real battles.

Kim defeated #30 Sugiyama (her former doubles partner and a player who's defeated Kim in the past), #10 Venus Williams (reigning Wimbledon champion), #1 seed Maria Sharapova and #12 seed Pierce (the second most in-form player this summer). Her matches against Venus and Sharapova were battles. A match against Clijsters is simply a bad match up for Mary Pierce who likes to play a one-two punch lights out match. Against Clijsters, Pierce needs to hit 3 winners instead of 1 just to win a point and with Pierce's high-risk game versus Kim's consistent game, the latter is bound to be the victor.

I was impressed with Kim's game and mental fortitude at this year's US Open and do not believe playing Mary Pierce in the final in any way detracts from her achievement. Clijsters and Pierce were clearly the in-form players, both women placing #1 and #2 respectively in the US Open Series lead up tournaments.

First of all, a player can only play whoever makes it to the other side of the net. Henin fell to Pierce, SWilliams to VWilliams, Davenport to Dementieva and Kim defeated Sharapova.

Clijsters match against Venus Williams was more than a quarterfinal. That was the final right there.
Venus has a decisive winning head to head against Kim and to top that off she is the reigning Wimbledon champion.
The women's side of the US Open 2005 was devoid of any major drama until it came to Clijsters' QF victory against Venus. Kim looked completely out of it down a set and a break. She was tight, spraying balls and giving away too many points while Venus played well. For the first set and a half Venus looked well on her way to posting a SF spot, but Clijsters started varying the pace of her shots and drew Venus into the net. Down a set and a break she could have easily folded, but instead Clijsters pushed to a third set and in the end Kim was too strong while Venus ran out of gas.
Also don't believe it's fair to say that Venus just made too many errors. The truth is that Clijsters gets so many balls back that she's bound to draw errors from her opponents. A Clijsters-Venus Williams match will always have a high error count because it's difficult to get the ball past both of these gals.

Against Sharapova in the SF, Clijsters again could've easily folded after losing those match points in the second set, but she regrouped mentally to get ahead in the third set and book a place in the final against Pierce.

The turning point for Kim at the championships was her victory over Venus, rallying from a set and a break against a player who's given her trouble in the past.