The former
world No. 1
Kim Clijsters commented on a panic attack she experienced in the
2021
Indian Wells. The Belgian returned to tennis for the second time in 2020
after 7 years since her retirement and played two tournaments in the Dubai Open
and Monterrey Open, but her comeback was halted when the Covid-19 pandemic
forced the cancellation of tournaments between March and July of that year.
After the
pandemic, she barely played a couple of matches before contracting COVID-19,
which once again kept her off the courts. In October 2021, Clijsters
participated in Indian Wells, which was postponed from March to October, and
was eliminated in the first round against Katerina Siniakova.
The 4-times
Grand Slam champion was invited to the program "Served with Andy
Roddick" and commented that she experienced a panic attack for the first
time while preparing to participate in Indian Wells.
"I
remember hitting with
Kiki Bertens and
Ajla Tomljanovic and I had such good
practices, be it practice sets, be it beating girls in practice, but I just
wanted to kind of prove it in a match,” the former world No. 1 started.
“And during
one of the practices I just started like, yeah, really I had a panic attack on
the tennis court. For a second, I felt like I was being a drama queen,"
Clijsters added.
"My
trainer was like 'Just lay down, put your legs up', and that, like, me calming
down, or that wasn't working at all. So I was like, to my tennis coach, 'Go
stand at the net and hit towards me'. So I had the rhythm and the sound of the
ball, and my breathing rhythm came back," she concluded.