Kim Clijsters' comeback continued to gather momentum Tuesday with a
6-0, 6-3 win over Australia's Alicia Molik at the Brisbane
International.
The top seed won the first eight games in the second-round
match against Molik, who was playing her first top-tier tournament
since the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Clijsters won the U.S. Open last September in only her third
tournament back from more than two years in retirement, becoming
the first mother to win a Grand Slam singles title since Evonne
Goolagong Cawley at Wimbledon in 1980.
Clijsters' title inspired a comeback by fellow Belgian and
former No. 1 Justine Henin, who won her first tour match since May
2008 on Monday against second-seeded Nadia Petrova.
Having Clijsters and Henin on the opposite ends of the draw
sets up the possibility of an intriguing all-Belgian final in the
lead up to the Australian Open, which starts Jan. 18.
Clijsters said she watched Henin's comeback match on TV and
was confident that both of them had the potential to return top of
the women's tour.
"She was moving really well. Didn't look like she'd left,''
Clijsters said. "Of course, it will be a good challenge, but
there's a lot of other girls I look forward to playing as well.''
Among them are Ana Ivanovic, Maria Sharapova and Venus and
Serena Williams.
"Those are obviously the big matches. And Justine now as
well,'' Clijsters said. "Justine and I, we've been on top of
women's tennis for a few years, so hopefully we can get back to
that.''
On the men's side, third-seeded Gael Monfils edged American
Taylor Dent 7-6 (1), 6-7 (5), 6-2 in a night match that didn't
feature a service break until the fifth game of the third set.
James Blake continued his dominance over fifth-seeded Sam
Querrey, improving to 6-1 in head-to-heads with a 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 win
over his fellow American.
In other first-round matches, 2006 Australian Open finalist
Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus beat American Mardy Fish 7-5, 7-5 and
will next face fourth-seeded Tomas Berdych, a 6-2, 6-4 winner over
Australian qualifier Nick Lindahl.
Australia's Carsten Ball had a 7-5, 6-1 win over Germany's
Mischa Zverev to set up a match against top-seeded Andy Roddick for
a place in the quarterfinals.
Clijsters is already into the quarterfinals against
Alexsandra Wozniak or Lucia Safarova.
She said she hasn't lost any momentum since the end of last
season, spending time during the break training in Germany against
``lots of guys'' to mix it up and fine-tune her game.
"After a few weeks of practicing in the off season I was
ready to come out here and play matches,'' she said. "I like to
practice, but when I feel I'm ready, I want to start playing
matches. So I was very excited to come out here and play.''
Clijsters has only lost six games in her opening two matches
in Brisbane, following a 6-2, 6-1 win over Tathiana Garbin in the
first round.
