Defending Australian Open champion Kim Clijsters took a significant hit in her bid to defend her title at Melbourne Park later this month after she was forced to retire from her semifinal match at the Brisbane International after suffering a left hip flexor injury.
Clijsters, the No. 5 seed in Brisbane, led Slovak Daniela Hantuchova 7-6(4), 1-3 when she was forced to retire after taking a medical timeout.
“And it was only yesterday she asked the tennis genie to be healthy for the last year,” Clijsters’ husband Brian Lynch ominously tweeted several hours later, indicating that the 28-year-old Belgian plans to hang up her racquet in 2012 as had been widely speculated.
Untimely injuries have derailed Clijsters’ attempts to defend her Grand Slam titles twice previously; she was unable to compete the next year after her U.S. Open wins in 2005 and 2010.
The one Grand Slam title she was healthy enough to attempt to defend she defended successfully, lifting the U.S. Open trophy again in 2010 after having done so in 2009 as well.
Clijsters’ injury comes only days after another multiple Grand Slam champion, Serena Williams, also was forced out of the tournament in Brisbane. Williams, who suffered a sprained left ankle in her second round win over Serbian Bojana Jovanovski, tweeted Friday that she was “doing a lot better” on her second day of recovery.
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