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EXCLUSIVE
THE
SCOOP: FRIDAY, MAY 31
Defeated Clijsters not likely
to play Fed Cup
By
Sandra Harwitt
tennisreporters.net
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 Roger
Parker
fotosports.com
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FROM ROLAND GARROS –
Kim Clijsters closed the door on returning
to the French Open final for a second consecutive year at Roland
Garros when she looked anything but a talented tennis star during
a surprising 6-4, 6-0 third-round loss to Clarisa Fernandez of Argentina.
No longer thinking about reaping
a Roland Garros reward in 2002, Clijsters can turn her attention
to other matters. One unexpected tidbit she dropped on tennisreporters.net
was that she’s possibly planning on taking a pass on playing
the Fed Cup quarterfinal round the weekend of July 15 against Italy
in Italy.
“I hope I’ll be
able to play but it’s going to be very tough,” Clijsters
said. “Last year I won Stanford and I have to defend my title
(the week of July 22 in California). It’s hard because the
Fed Cup is the weekend before I think – I haven’t thought
about it yet because I’ve been thinking about this tournament.
I’ll see how it’s going to happen, but also, with my shoulder
and everything, I don’t want to play too much.
“It’s hard because
I have to play the tournament that I won – I have a lot of
points to defend there. It’s a tough choice. I don’t want
to play Fed Cup and then fly to Stanford and then play in the next
two days. That’s a bit of a hassle. So, it’s probably
going to be that I don’t think I’ll be playing. Probably
not.”
Clijsters does not discount
Belgium’s chances to move on in Fed Cup without her appearance,
pointing out that Justine Henin is likely to carry the torch for
the tiny country that makes the best chocolates in the world.
“In Fed Cup everything
is possible,” Clijsters said. “Last year or I mean the
year before, when I went to Moscow with the team, I don’t know
what I was ranked – 30’s or 40’s. In Belgium they
were saying nobody was playing, nobody is bothering going and we
don’t even have a chance because Sabine (Appelmans) and Dominique
(Van Roost) and then we went. And I beat a few top 10 players there.”
IMPATIENT KIM SUCCUMBS
TO UNKNOWN
The fourth-seeded Clijsters is something of an enigma on the women’s
tour.
Highly talented and capable of brilliance on the court, she at times
seems fiercely competitive and then on other occasions seems unperturbed
about lackluster performances. During her loss to the 87th-ranked
Fernandez, Clijsters claimed she didn’t feel up to the task
at hand. She certainly looked less than into the proceedings when
she won only two points in three service games in the second set.
“I just felt tired,”
said the 18-year-old Clijsters, who took Capriati to 12-10 in a
third-set tiebreaker in the ’01 final. “My whole body
just felt a little more heavier. But I don’t think that’s
the reason (I lost). I just didn’t play well. Like everything,
I tried to go for too many shots. I felt like in the beginning I
was controlling the points, but then I just couldn’t finish
them off at the end.”
With her French Open cut short
by poor play, Clijsters can stay in Paris to watch boyfriend Lleyton
Hewitt, the top seed in the men’s draw, search for a first
French Open trophy to sit side-by-side with his 2001 U.S. Open.
While many players are beside
themselves after a loss, Clijsters has a quite different attitude,
refusing to see a loss as the end of the world. Much of this perspective
could come from the fact that Clijsters saw her mother, Els, successfully
battle liver cancer and undergo a transplant.
“I think there are worst
tragedies in life than losing a tennis match,” Clijsters said,
adamantly. “Well, of course, it’s always disappointing
to lose a match. “I go on the court, and there’s an opponent
standing in front of me who wants to win, as well. Someone has to
lose and today it was me.
“But, you know, I think
I’ve gone through enough things to realize that there are worse
things in life than losing a match. After this match, there’s
another tournament coming up.”
While Clijsters deserve much
credit for her mature judgment on such matters, the flipside is
a concern that this attitude might prevent the delightful Belgian
from ever totally realizing her potential. After all, it’s
hard to deny that an ability to drop one’s intensity level
to the point of accepting losses more than graciously could have
a negative effect on her career results.
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