IT'S AN image that went around the world of a happy little girl with golden curls, a proud mother and a precious piece of silverware.
But nowhere in the home of Kim Clijsters in Bree, Belgium, would you find a picture of the night that her daughter Jada, who turns two next month, greeted her mum on court at Flushing Meadows Arthur Ashe Stadium after Clijsters became the first mother in 29 years to win a grand slam singles title.
This says a lot about Clijsters and where tennis sits in her life.
When Clijsters made her comeback to tennis after a 2 1/2-year retirement and won a grand slam title in her third event back, she said Jada was her priority. She wasn't kidding.
The little girl, who travels to tournaments with Clijsters, her husband Brian Lynch and the nanny she has at home in Belgium, has a cast-iron routine.
Jada proved herself a team player when it mattered most - by not waking up or coming in for a cuddle during the night before Clijsters' US Open semi-final win over Serena Williams or before the final.
"We are actually very lucky. She sleeps really well usually," Clijsters said this week.
"We had been in the US for some time and she had gotten used to the time change. She was very good on schedule those days."
Clijsters, 26, rated her win over Williams that night as the best of her life.
The explosive end to the match, in which Williams abused a lineswoman and received a point penalty, ended a long and trying day.
The match was delayed by rain and tested the nerve of Clijsters, whose temperament had been questioned after she had lost her first four grand slam finals.
"I remember we played that match against Serena at 9pm and I watched (film) Ice Age that afternoon with Jada in our hotel room," she said.
"That's something that keeps you relaxed and not worried. Life has changed."
Clijsters' "first career" had high points of a 2005 US Open title and a hold on the world No. 1 ranking for 19 weeks.
But the regard she is held by fans, particularly in Australia, owes more to her happy demeanour, which seems to never change in defeat or victory or with the added responsibility of motherhood.
"My husband and I and the nanny we have . . . I am very strict on food and routine and nap-time. As long as she (Jada) keeps having a routine, that's important," Clijsters said.
Life in hotels with a small child has its challenges.
When she left the hotel in Cincinnati last August to play her first match since Jada was born, Clijsters' daughter cried at the separation.
"But it's just a very comfortable feeling knowing when you're out there that she's in bed sleeping quietly, doing her thing," Clijsters said.
She has traded kids-on-tour stories with another former world No. 1, Lindsay Davenport, who went back on the tour with a young son until she became pregnant a second time, and current tour player Sybille Bammer.
Evonne Goolagong Cawley, who lives on the Sunshine Coast and won Wimbledon as a mother in 1980, was invited to the Brisbane International this week, but was unable to accept.
Clijsters hopes they can catch up in Melbourne, where she will spend the next three weeks preparing for the Australian Open, for which she is second favourite with the bookies behind Serena Williams.
She believes that she is better equipped, physically, to handle the demands of professional tennis after becoming a mother.
"Your body changes so much with the pregnancy and the delivery," Clijsters said.
"I've also learnt that I started from zero (after childbirth). The bad habits that our bodies build up from when 13 or 14, they all got pushed aside and you get a new start to prepare your body a little bit.
"I had the time (when training for a comeback last year) to really focus on a lot of weaknesses I had which in the past were unnoticed or pushed aside because there were so many other things to focus on. That year and a half after she has been born, I could focus on a lot of those weaknesses and also make my strengths stronger. It was balancing out your whole body."
Beyond the Australian Open, Clijsters plans to play 14 tournaments this year.
She declined to be specific about her commitment beyond 2010.
"This is not something I'm going to be doing for the next five or 10 years. I might as well (play) until we try for No. 2, I guess," Clijsters said after winning the US Open.
Clijsters says she is more organised than she was in her "first career".
"I was kind of a person who just goes with the flow, and now everything has to be a little more planned obviously," she said.
"It's fun and it's definitely helped me a lot, as well, as a tennis player. I'm more capable of adjusting on the court and adjusting, you know, my emotions a little bit better and reading my emotions. I think that's something that's very important out there, especially in big matches."
Source: heraldsun
I can't wait to see the great reception she will undoubtedly receive at the Aussie Open (9 days and counting!).
Though I got a little sad when I read the part about her not planing on doing this (playing tennis) for 5 or 10 years.
It's obvoiusly inevitable that she will have another child in the future, personally I'm hoping it's not for at least 2 or 3 more years.
Until then I'll just enjoy it while it lasts =).
