"Never thought I was going to come back like Serena Williams & Naomi Osaka" - Kim Clijsters on 'life-changing' events & tennis return after childbirth

Kim Clijsters has stated that she never had plans of making a comeback to tennis when she was pregnant with her first child.

She rose to fame at a very young age. After turning pro as a 15-year-old, she climbed the WTA rankings with every passing season. Five years after breaking out, she became the first Belgian to achieve the World No. 1 ranking in both singles and doubles.

Her career, however, was plagued by injuries and she eventually announced her retirement in 2007, aged only 23. A few months later, she married American basketball player Brian Lynch and gave birth to her daughter, Jada, in 2008.

Kim Clijsters made a surprise return to the women's tour in 2009 and went on to win the US Open that year, defeating Caroline Wozniacki in the final. Looking back at her comeback, the 40-year-old stated that she never had any plans of returning to life on the road as a professional player.

"When I stopped playing and I had Jada, I never thought that I was going to come back. Like Serena [Williams] and Naomi [Osaka], they all kind of already said ‘yeah I'm coming back as soon as my body's capable. I'll try to push it and be ready for a certain timeline’. I didn't do that. I was done playing tennis, I was done with the crazy circus of traveling on the road and dealing with everything else that comes outside of what happens on the tennis court," she said on the latest episode of the Served with Andy Roddick podcast.

Williams returned to the WTA tour after giving birth to her first child, daughter Alexis. She reached four Grand Slam finals, but couldn't win any of them. Most recently, Osaka made her comeback earlier this year after giving birth to her daughter, Shai, in July 2023.

Kim Clijsters also disclosed that getting the invitation to play in an exhibition match to celebrate the newly installed roof on Wimbledon's Centre Court sparked her desire to make a return to the sport.

"And then you know met Brian, had a tough time with my father who passed away, he was sick for a year. My sister and I, we took care of him. And then had Jada. So a lot of life-changing things happened in my life in a short amount of time. And then the invitation to play Andre [Agassi] and Steffi [Graf] at Wimbledon, when they built the new roof on Centre Court, that kind of sparked my time to go and work out again, to go hit," she added.

---

"It was too much to handle" - Kim Clijsters on her emotions after winning the 2009 US Open

Kim Clijsters with the 2009 US Open title.

After announcing her comeback, Kim Clijsters took wildcards to compete at the Cincinnati Open, Canadian Open, and US Open in 2009.

In Cincinnati, she made it to the quarterfinals, where she lost to then World No. 1 Dinara Safina. In Canada, she made it to the third round before falling to Jelena Jankovic.

At the US Open, the Belgian reached the final, defeating Venus Williams and Serena Williams along the way. She then beat Caroline Wozniacki in straight sets to emerge as the champion, making her the first unseeded player and wild card to win the title. She also became the first mother to win a Grand Slam since Evonne Goolagong in 1980.

Kim Clijsters recounted her 2009 New York title win, describing the overwhelming emotions that flooded in, causing her to crash on a city street.

"I crashed on the streets somewhere in New York, completely. The emotions of that whole year of losing my dad and it was just… I had just my team and Brian and we just sat and I just could not stop crying. It's like you held it in for so long or you tried to suppress those feelings of grief and the excitement too," she disclosed.

"But then also dealing with media always trying to get something from Jada or pictures and you don't want to be rude but you're trying to like block it as much as possible. And I think everything just came together and it was too much to handle," she added.