"My passion for tennis will never leave" - Clijsters takes retrospective look at career following retirement announcement

Kim Clijsters was enshrined in the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2017, but the Belgian announced on Friday that she was finally stepping away from the game after a brief 20-month comeback.

The 38-year-old, along with husband Brian, is busy settling their three children into life in suburban New Jersey after a move from Belgium. She drives them to school and back, oversees homework, cooks breakfast and dinner – and there’s an endless supply of laundry.

“Yeah, it’s been on my mind for a while,” Clijsters said. “I still love to hit the ball. With my schedule three, four days was enough to keep my rhythm under control but definitely not good enough if I decided to play another tournament. Say, if I picked Australia, it’s three, four weeks. That’s just not possible at this stage in our family life.

“Life just sort of takes over, right?”

Clijsters' last official match was Oct. 7 2021, when she lost to Katerina Siniakova in the first round at Indian Wells. She subsequently played World Team Tennis, winning more singles games than she lost. The former World No.1 had retired twice from the sport she loves, in 2007 and again in 2012. However, the itch to compete persisted even after she became a mother, which led to her giving it one more go in 2020.

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She played only five matches – COVID-19 was wreaking havoc with world travel and she suffered a knee injury – but in a testament to her savvy, she extended three of them to a third set.

“My passion for tennis will never leave no matter what I do,” Clijsters said. “I feel a very big need to give back to tennis because I’ve gotten so much out of it. So, yeah, that will be the next phase, to see where can I go?”

She has declined several requests from current players to be a part-time coach, opting instead to focus on her daughter Jada’s burgeoning basketball career. Recently, Clijsters visited with the women’s tennis team at Monmouth University. She played doubles, played some singles points and sat on the court for an hour answering questions. She’ll be a fixture at the Grand Slams, doing television work and playing legends tennis – she’s excited that Wimbledon is adding mixed doubles to their schedule.