Saturday, June 01, 2002
Apathetic Clijsters bows out
French Open
The Associated Press
PARIS — Nothing was going right for Kim Clijsters, who sprayed strokes long, short and wide against an opponent playing the match of her life at the French Open.
Yet last year's runner-up was nothing but calm, almost oddly so.
She didn't toss her racket or yell at herself or kick at the dirt or act in any of the other ways plenty of players, including her boyfriend, top-ranked Lleyton Hewitt, have been known to when frustration sets in.
The No. 4-seeded Clijsters simply looked at her racket strings and sighed every so often during a stunning 6-4, 6-0 third-round loss Friday to Clarisa Fernandez, an Argentine ranked 87th who'd never won a Grand Slam match until this week.
“It's still just a sport for me. I'm still young,” the 18-year-old Clijsters said. “I'm sure I'll keep playing this tournament for a few more years.”
Venus Williams has had less success at the French Open than the other majors, but that could change soon. Her 6-1, 6-4 victory over No.31 Rita Grande ensured she'll supplant Jennifer Capriati at No.1 in the rankings and put Williams into the fourth round against resurgent Chanda Rubin, who beat No.23 Anne Kremer 6-1, 6-0.
Other round-of-16 matchups: No.6 Monica Seles vs. No.11 Daniela Hantuchova; No.13 Elena Dementieva vs. Fernandez; and No.10 Amelie Mauresmo vs. Paola Suarez, who finished off No.27 Nathalie Dechy of France.
Clijsters lost so quickly that she had time to go watch the end of U.S. Open champion Hewitt's 6-1, 7-5, 6-7 (3), 6-1 victory over No.30 Sjeng Schalken.
Hewitt now faces No.15 Guillermo Canas, who defeated 1998 French Open winner Carlos Moya in a match interrupted for an hour when police evacuated Court1 because of an unattended briefcase in the stands. A bomb squad blew open the case, didn't find anything, and fans were allowed back in.
Other men's fourth-round pairings set today: three-time champion Gustavo Kuerten vs. No.20 Albert Costa, No.3 Tommy Haas vs. No.22 Andrei Pavel, and two-time finalist Alex Corretja vs. Mariano Zabaleta.
An hour after her not-so-upsetting upset, Clijsters smiled while discussing her game's momentary meltdown, complete with 59 unforced errors.
She had 59 unforced errors against Fernandez, a 5-foot-10 1/2 left-hander, who is, as they say, just happy to be here (her goal right now is to crack the top 50).
It's not that Clijsters — who's coming off a shoulder injury and had two tough matches earlier in Paris — didn't care about failing to reach the quarterfinals for the first time in the past five majors. It's that she didn't care TOO much.
“I've gone through enough things,” the Belgian said, “to realize that there are worse tragedies in life than losing a tennis match.”
A sense of how to live with the highs and lows of top-level competition was instilled by Clijsters' parents: father Lei was on Belgium's 1990 World Cup team, and mother Els was a national gymnastics champion.
Els Clijsters received a liver transplant in March 1999, and is in Paris this week, along with Lei, and Kim's younger sister, Elke, who's in the junior French Open.
“After this tournament, there's another tournament,” Clijsters said. “Of course I feel disappointed. But there are worse things.”
Her ouster means the two-woman Belgian Brigade is gone: Justine Henin, a French Open semifinalist and Wimbledon finalist last year, lost in the first round.
Rubin's run — she beat No.16 Barbara Schett on Thursday — continues a comeback from two left knee operations in the last 17 months. She is showing the form that carried her to the French Open quarterfinals twice and the 1996 Australian Open semis.
Williams, beaten by Schett in the first round last year, has looked superb, dropping just 12 games in three matches, and she had 23 winners to Grande's one.
Williams' biggest problem this week: She forgot her tournament pass one day and a security guard who didn't recognize the two-time U.S. Open and Wimbledon champion blocked her path until she produced a passport.
At times, her monologue of a match against Grande — who tested Capriati in the Australian Open's fourth round — had the feel of a practice session:
How about a serve that smacks the line at nearly 120 mph? Check.
Time for a running backhand winner. Check.
Now let's try a volley or two. Check.
Said Grande: “She's going to lose only if she makes mistakes for 1 1/2 hours in a row.”
Notes: Martina Navratilova, still playing doubles at 45, and Natasha Zvereva lost to top-seeded Lisa Raymond and Rennae Stubbs 6-7 (4), 6-3, 6-4. ... Capriati and brother Steven were eliminated in mixed doubles. ... Corretja knelt and kissed the clay after he beat Arnaud Clement 6-1, 6-2, 4-6, 5-7, 8-6 in 4 hours, 13 minutes.
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Apathetic Clijsters bows out
