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Kim Clijsters, four-time Grand Slam champion, announced Thursday that she would end her second tennis career and try to return to the WTA circuit next year.
Clijsters, 36, won the US Open in 2005, but retired two years later at age 23. At the time, she had been talking about injuries, her pending marriage, and her eagerness to turn to a new life. Villanova basketball player, Brian Lynch, and gave birth to a girl.
But Clijsters returned to the tour in 2009 and had his best performance as a pro, winning both the US Open, in 2009 and 2010, and the Australian Open in 2011. She then took her retirement, apparently for good, at 29 years old. had two other children. Since she's retired from play as a player in 2012, she has worked as a commentator and run a tennis academy.
"Over the years, I sometimes played with the idea, but then I thought," No, it's impossible, "said Clijsters on the WTA Insider podcast. "My life is here at home now and with the three children, my youngest needs me the most. I could not see that being part of my life. "
But she said that a trip to the Australian Open this year with her family had made her think of coming back.
"In the last seven years, I have been a full-time mom. And I love it, really, really, "she said in a Twitter video announcing her return. "But I also liked being a professional tennis player and honestly, that feeling I miss. What if I tried to do both?
Clijsters said she had set for early 2020 the target of her return.
"In December, I feel that if I'm not even close to where I want to be, I'm not going to just go somewhere," she said. "I want to feel like I'm reaching what I want to be."
Clijsters was the best player in the world for 20 weeks in 2003, 2006 and 2011. She also played with the winning team of the Fed Cup in 2001, beating Russian Elena Dementieva in the deciding match. She was inducted into the Tennis Hall of Fame in 2017.
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