Mostly positive reactions to Clijsters return in Dubai

Tuesday, 18 February 2020 at 12:00

Clijsters raises his arms after winning the Australian Open 2011 title

Kim Clijsters hasn't played in a competitive match since 2012 and after yesterday's match against Muguruza a lot of former legends come out to support her.

When Clijsters announced a couple of months ago she would return to competitive tennis a lot were left confused. Many wondered why was she coming back after such a long hiatus. After all, she hadn't played since 2012. Speaking to the media she revealed that it had to do simply with a love for the game and desire to compete.

She was also realistic about her chance knowing that it takes games to get back in playing shape not just training. She wasn't aided by the draw which paired her up with Muguruza. The Spaniard recently was close to winning the Australian Open but ultimately failed.

Clijsters played pretty good but not good enough to defeat Muguruza. She lost the match 2-6 6-7(6). After the match she was pretty happy with her performance recapping it:

"To know that the work we have put in, yeah, I feel like we're going in the right direction. "We're not where we want to be yet, but we're going in the right direction. That's really important."

And she was right in that assessment. She is not in competitive tennis shape yet, she carries a bit too much weight but in two months she could be quite competitive. Her strokes looked good and sharp it's just her fitness that held her back. The reaction of some former tennis legends was positive as well.

https://twitter.com/Clijsterskim/status/1229715653399019520