page_title: Kim Clijsters
section_title: 2006–07: Return to No. 1, hastened retirement
hierarchical_section_title: Kim Clijsters / Professional career / 2006–07: Return to No. 1, hastened retirement
caption_attribution_description: The 2006 Acura Classic, Kim Clijsters
context_page_description: Kim Antonie Lode Clijsters is a Belgian professional tennis player. Clijsters has been a world No. 1 in both singles and doubles, having held both rankings simultaneously in 2003. She has won a total of six Grand Slam tournament titles, four in singles and two in doubles.
  Clijsters has competed professionally from 1997 in an era in which her primary rivals were compatriot Justine Henin and 23-time Grand Slam singles champion Serena Williams. Coming from a country with limited success in men's or women's tennis, Clijsters became the first Belgian player to attain the No. 1 ranking. Together with Henin, she established Belgium as a leading force in women's tennis as the two of them led their country to their first Fed Cup crown in 2001 and were the top two players in the world in late 2003. Individually, Clijsters has won 41 singles titles and 11 doubles titles on the Women's Tennis Association Tour. She was a three-time winner of the WTA Tour Championships. Between singles and doubles, she has been a champion at all four Grand Slam tournaments, winning the US Open and the Australian Open in singles and Wimbledon and the French Open in doubles with Ai Sugiyama.
context_section_description: The 2006 season saw a variety of injury issues for Clijsters. She only played in 14 tournaments, missing the US Open as well as the Fed Cup final. While she reached the semifinals at the other three Grand Slam singles events, she was unable to advance to another final. Clijsters withdrew from her first tournament of the year, the Sydney International with hip and back problems. Although she recovered from those issues in time to reach the semifinals at the Australian Open, she needed to retire from that match as well after twisting her ankle while down a break in the third set against Amélie Mauresmo. Nonetheless, with Davenport losing in the quarterfinals, Clijsters regained the No. 1 ranking. She held the top ranking through mid-March. Clijsters returned for the Diamond Games where she finished runner-up to Mauresmo, but needed to withdraw from the Indian Wells Open because of the same ankle injury. While she was healthy enough to play a regular schedule during the clay and grass court seasons, Henin continued her recent dominance of their rivalry over this stretch. She defeated Clijsters in the semifinals of three consecutive events, including the French Open and Wimbledon.
  During the US Open Series, Clijsters won her fourth Stanford Classic and finished runner-up to Maria Sharapova at the Tier I San Diego Classic. However, her summer season came to an end when she fell on her left wrist in her opening round match at the Canadian Open. This injury kept her out until late October. She made her return at the Hasselt Cup and won her second consecutive title at the event. Clijsters entered the WTA Tour Championships ranked No. 5 in the world, where all three other players she was grouped with were Russian. Although she lost to her group's top seed, Sharapova, she defeated Svetlana Kuznetsova and Elena Dementieva to advance. Her season ended in the semifinals, where she lost to world No. 1 Mauresmo.
  Clijsters entered 2007 intending to retire at the end of the season, but only ended up playing in five tournaments due to injuries. She won her only title of the year in her first tournament, the Sydney International. The Australian Open was her only Grand Slam event of the season. For the second consecutive season, she lost in the semifinals, this time to top seed Sharapova. Clijsters's last tournament in Belgium was the Diamond Games, where she finished runner-up to Mauresmo for the second year in a row. A hip injury limited Clijsters's remaining schedule. In her last two tournaments, she lost to Li Na in the fourth round of the Miami Open in March and qualifier Julia Vakulenko in her opening match at the Warsaw Open in May. Her last win was against Samantha Stosur in Miami. A few days after losing in Warsaw, Clijsters announced her retirement at the age of 23, forgoing plans to finish the season.
caption: Clijsters in 2006
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