Clijsters pure class

Fitting tributes to one of the most popular players on the WTA tour in the last 20 years as Kim Clijsters retires after a second round loss. Nate Taylor captures Clijsters’ mix of sadness and celebration:

“Every time I came back here I was inspired,” Clijsters said. “This has been a great adventure for my family, and I look forward to the next part of my life.”

Jon Wertheim at SI.com describes the classy Clijsters’ under-the-radar trips around the National Tennis Center to support her friends:

How did she spent the weekend prior to the last event of her career? Watching her doubles partner and friend, Kirsten Flipkens, attempt to qualify for the main draw, even mixing Flipkens’s sports drink. This suggests two things: First, that Clijsters is remarkably loyal and endearing and grounded — which, of course we already knew. And that at this last tournament of her Hall of Fame career, she was here less to win the trophy than to smell the roses.

In Jane McManus’ piece at ESPN.com, Clijsters says she has no regrets:

Tennis was a hazy childhood dream when Kim Clijsters got Steffi Graf’s tennis outfit under the tree one Christmas. It would have been impossible to know that she would one day follow Graf’s path onto the professional tour, win three U.S. Open championships on a surface and in a place she came to view as uniquely her own. ”I’ve always felt when I stepped on the hard court I was the player that I wanted to be,” Clijsters said.

Bryan Armen Graham at ESPN.com says Clijsters was much more than just agreeable:

Everyone keeps talking about how nice Clijsters was. Her legacy, it seems, will be her popularity. What’s been underplayed is the mental tenacity, the taste for combat, that made Clijsters one of the most ruthless competitors of her time. All the more praiseworthy in an era of one-slam wonders, dubious No. 1s and paper champions.

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