This New Year 2012 began with a bang for Kim Clijsters who won in straight sets over Romanian Simona Halep in the Brisbane International. The Sunday match resulted in the returning champ to win with ease as she swooped through the round without any difficulty.
Clijsters wins her first match into the New Year
The scores after the match in Pat Rafter Arena, were: 6-1, 6-4 although it was hard to tell that Clijsters has not played the circuit since August of 2011 after falling victim to a series of injuries. She was satisfied with the way she played the first match. The start of a brand new year and a brand new win was just the kick that Clijsters would have been praying for prior to the match.
This was the ideal win as Clijsters defended her Australian Open win with a kick into a brand new year. She currently sits at fifth seed and Halep at 47th. She won her 4th grand slam in Melbourne last year however had to take away from playing due to ankle injuries, having to miss Wimbledon.
She confirmed after the match that her injuries were no longer troubling her.
She said that she was happy with her strong shots and agreed that her serves, which are not her strong suit, was a strength all throughout this game. Her next match may be either with world no1 Ana Ivanovic or Tamira Paszek of Australia, who play their opening match on Monday.
Third seed, Francesca Schiavone of Italy walked over through the second round after Ksenia Pervak retired with a headache.
Clijsters is not the only one making a comeback this season. Serena Williams is also returning to her left game with this tournament. Her last match was a defeat against Samantha Stosur in the US Open finals last September. Her first match will be on Monday against Chanelle Scheepers of South Africa. She has a good chance of facing Stosur in the semi finals.
In the men’s matches, Andy Murray begins his campaign on Tuesday playing his first match. So far, third seed Alexandr Dolgopolov from Ukraine won his match over Alejandro Falla of Colombia with a score of 7-6, 6-2.
So far the New Year has been exactly what both Clijsters and Dolgopolov were in anticipation for however there is still a waiting for all the other players and a whole tournament to be finished!
Tags: Brisbane International, Kim Clijsters, Simona Halep, Tennis
