Australian Open winner, Belgian Kim announces plans to have a second baby after the 2012 London Olympics
Australian Open winner, Belgian Kim announces plans to have a second baby after the 2012 London Olympics
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Belgian supermum Kim Clijsters is going from strength to strength in women's tennis, but she may be only 18 months away from retiring for the second time.
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Clijsters (27) claimed her fourth Grand Slam winu00a0-- and her third since taking a long break to have a babyu00a0-- when she won the Australian Open for the first time, beating Li Na in the final on Saturday.
"I do think this is probably my last full season that I'll be playing. I would like to keep going until the Olympics," Clijsters said.
"I've never played the Olympics, which is in a year-and-a-half's time, or a little under a year-and-a-half. And then we'll see after that."
The World No 3 first started playing professional tennis as a 14-year-old in 1997, and now has 41 singles titles and 11 doubles crowns.
A World No 1 in 2003 and the winner of the first of three US Opens in 2005, Clijsters chose to retire at the end of 2008 when she married US basketballer Brian Lynch and gave birth to her daughter, Jada.
But in 2009 she was asked to take part in a tournament alongside other retired players to test the new roof on the Wimbledon centre court, and it was there she realised she hadn't finished with the sport.
She went back into training and made a sensational comeback mid-way through the year when she won her second US Open in just her fourth tournament back.
Clijsters, who travels with a a large entourage including her husband, daughter and a nanny, won five tournaments in 2010, the highlight being her third US Open when she beat Vera Zvonareva in a one-sided final.
But Clijsters, who speaks fondly of spending time with her family in Belgium, made it clear that when she had a second child, there would be no second comeback.
However, she denied rumours she was pregnant during the Aus Open, when she took TV commentator Todd Woodbridge to task over a text message he sent to her doubles partner, Rennae Stubbs.
"Rennae Stubbs showed me a text message you sent her while I was playing in Sydney about how you thought I was pregnant," Clijsters said, during an on-court interview. "You said: 'She looks really grumpy and her b**bs are bigger'."
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