Clijsters defends New York crown
Originally published on: 12/09/10 11:08
Kim Clijsters defended her US Open title with a hugely one-sided victory over Russia’s Vera Zvonareva at Flushing Meadows.
Wimbledon runner-up Zvonareva had not dropped a set in reaching her second consecutive Grand Slam final, but produced an error-strewn display as Clijsters picked up her third US Open crown with a 6-2 6-1 win in exactly an hour.
The 27-year-old Belgian has now won 21 consecutive matches in New York, having triumphed in 2005 and then coming out of retirement last year to win the title again in just the 14th match of her comeback.
“Obviously when I started my summer, the US Open was my main goal,” Clijsters said.
“It was a new situation for me as well, going back to the Grand Slam where I was actually defending my title for the first time. Not having been able to do that in 2006 was frustrating at the time.
“Last year it was a different kind of attention. People were still curious to see how I was playing and people knew that with my history here that I was maybe one of the contenders.
“To me, I have to go match by match. Upsets can happen in the beginning of the tournament and I wasn’t playing my best tennis when I wanted to in the beginning. But I was able to lift my game in the last two matches when I needed it to. That’s probably what I’m most pleased with over these last 14 days, is that I was able to do that.”
Zvonareva, who was in floods of tears immediately after the match, said: “I don’t think I was overwhelmed. Of course it was a great honour to be in the finals of the US Open and playing in front of the New York crowd but I think Kim just played a very good match. She didn’t really give me chances to get into the match.
“I think I have to learn how to make sure that I recover well and I’m physically fit and ready to play when it comes down to the last matches of the tournament, like semi-finals or finals.”
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