KIM Clijsters is adamant her troublesome hip is fine despite making a rusty start to her Australian Open title defence yesterday.
The crowd favourite was unconvincing early, struggling to hold serve in the first set before steadying in a 7-5 6-1 win over Maria Joao Koehler.
Clijsters was forced to pull out of the Brisbane International semi-final last week because of a strained hip, continuing a torrid run of injuries from last year.
The latest complaint put another question mark over her fitness at the start of what is most likely to be her last year on the world tour.
But the 11th seed's opponent, Koehler, offered little resistance in the crucial stages of the first set and wilted entirely in the second.
Clijsters, 28, insisted her hip was fully recovered and said she was happy she fought her way through a testing period early.
"I don't think anyone plays a grand slam and plays all perfect matches," Clijsters said.
"You have to find a way through it sometimes and find that little extra on the most important points.
"Today I felt like I served well, there was a couple of double faults, but that is probably going to be there all the time."
Clijsters said she was forced to warm up several times as Bernard Tomic fought out a five-set thriller with Fernando Verdasco.
Should she progress, Clijsters faces a fourth-round meeting against the woman she beat in last year's Aussie Open decider, Li Na.
Well it certainly wasn't the imposing start we're used to from Clijsters, but understandably so not having played much with the hip injury.
It wasn't awful, but it wasn't great either. Lots of room for improvement.
It wasn't awful, but it wasn't great either. Lots of room for improvement.
But with first rounds all that matters is that you get through it, Clijsters does tend to work on her game as she goes through the tournament a lot the of time so hopefully things will get better.
Personally I hope she decreases the number of double faults because that could get her into a lot of unnecessary trouble with bigger and better opponents.
No comments:
Post a Comment