Kim Clijsters crashes out of French Open

Belgian Super Mom Kim Clijsters suffered an upset defeat in the second round of the French Open to Dutch woman Arantxa Rus in three sets 3-6, 7-5, 6-1. Coming into the match as a heavy favourite, Clijsters took the first set despite Rus’ attempt to fight her way back after the Belgian began the match with a 3-0 lead.

Frustrating day out for Clijsters

In the second set, Clijsters began in a fashion very similar to the first as she took a 3-0 lead. She stood poised on the brink of victory as she led 5-2 taking advantage of errors which began to cripple her opponent’s game play. What followed was an upset of mammoth proportions as Rus won the next four games to claw her way back into the match after being a match point down to make it 6-5, before eventually winning the set by her own rights by serving it out.

With the match now evenly poised and an errant Clijsters looking shaky and out of form after having been broken in her serve twice in the second set comeback, Rus carried her momentum forward to take the lead very early in the third and final set. Clijsters, unable to mount a fightback, caved in as Rus took the third set 6-1, thus knocking the Belgian out of the tournament in the second round and going on to face Maria Kirilenko or Chanelle Scheepers in the third round.

Clijsters, the World no. 2, has never won a French Open, having been a losing finalist here twice. She was a favourite to go all the way in this edition of the tournament and thus the second round exit comes as a shocker. Her rusty game can be attributed to her lack of preparation as she has not played since March due to an ankle injury and there were initial doubts over her participation at Roland Garros.

This is Clijster’s worst Grand Slam defeat in nine years and it came due to an error prone game as she committed a total of 65 unforced errors and 10 double faults, losing 11 of her final 12 games.

20 year old Arantxa Rus, ranked 114th in the world, has never been past the second round of the French Open before and will be high in spirits in the third round after her spirited victory.