Opinion: Don't gamble opposite Kim Clijsters in comeback

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The thought sounds ridiculous during first. Kim Clijsters perplexing to make a quip after 7 years divided from tennis, during a age of 36.

When we consider about it, though, since not? And, some-more accurately, who better?

At one point, 36 was deliberate ancient for a tennis player. Particularly a womanlike tennis player. But we are not even a week private from Serena Williams playing for a U.S. Open pretension during 37, a fourth time in a final 6 Grand Slams that she’s reached a final.

Williams didn’t win a U.S. Open, usually as she came adult brief in a other 3 finals. But that’s looking some-more and some-more like a mental retard than a thoughtfulness of her ability to contest with a younger set that is personification bigger, faster and bolder than ever.

There’s no reason it can’t be a same for Clijsters, who announced Thursday that she will lapse to a WTA in 2020.

The four-time vital winner’s strength was always in her ability to make matches come to her. She was never a biggest hitter, yet her coherence and speed – both in speed and reactions – some-more than done adult for it.

“There are times during a U.S. Open when we see some of a tennis we think, ‘No way, that’s not where I’m going to be means to get to’ since it usually looks like they’re attack a turn so most harder,” Clijsters pronounced in an talk with a WTA Insider Podcast.

“But I’ve always had that in me. I always saw everybody as, ‘Oh my God, they pierce so well’ or they strike a turn so tough or they have so most accumulation in their game,” she said. “And afterwards when we stood opposite from them we felt OK. It indeed doesn’t feel as hard, a turn doesn’t feel as absolute as when we saw it on TV or something.” 

Besides, Clijsters knows how to make a comeback.

Two years after winning her initial major, a 2005 U.S. Open, Clijsters late to start a family. But after carrying daughter Jada in Feb 2008, she was behind on a debate 18 months later.

Three tournaments into her comeback, she won a 2009 U.S. Open, violence Williams, Venus Williams and Caroline Wozniacki in a process.

Clijsters would win dual some-more majors and retrieve a No. 1 ranking before timid again in 2012.  

“Over a years we infrequently played with a thought (of entrance back) yet afterwards we was like, `No this is impossible,’” pronounced Clijsters, who also has dual sons, now 5 and 2.

That’s a loyal beauty of sport, though. We play sports to pull ourselves. We watch sports to see boundary tested and bounds broken. Nothing is some-more constrained than saying something once deliberate unfit brought within reach.

Maybe Clijsters won’t attain in a required sense. Maybe she won’t win another vital or make it behind to a tip five. Maybe she won’t even win a compare in a Grand Slam.

But she’s contrast herself and, in a process, giving all of us a glance during what’s probable if we’re usually confidant adequate to try.

Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on Twitter @nrarmour. 

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