Will Kim beat Justine ?

[Donny]

Majors record sore point for Kim

By Bruce Matthews - Fox

NO PAIN, no gain has to be the motto for Kim Clijsters if she's to shatter her grand slam jinx on Rod Laver Arena tomorrow.

Clijsters must continue to play hurt after shrugging off discomfort from a strained left ankle to set up another final-day bout with Belgian rival Justine Henin-Hardenne.

"The bone is not going to chip off or it's not going to move or anything. I'm not going to make the injury worse. The swelling can get worse and I'll get pain. I'll just have to get through that pain while I'm playing," Clijsters said.

While the popular second seed enjoys an edge in crowd support as Lleyton Hewitt's fiancee, she starts the outsider for more than the ankle ailment after coming up short against Henin-Hardenne in the French Open and US Open finals last year.

A fit and firing Henin-Hardenne earned a shot at her first Australian singles crown with an unfussed 6-2 6-2 semi-final triumph over Colombian Fabiola Zuluaga.

Clijsters gave her suspect ankle a solid test before nailing Swiss left-hander Patty Schnyder 6-2 7-6 (7-2), although she was briefly headed after surrendering a 3-1 lead in the second set.

"I knew yesterday that it (her taped left ankle) was going to be a little bit sore going for it. But doctors have reassured me that I'm not going to make it any worse by playing," Clijsters said.

"I have to keep my mind off it. When I hurt it again in my previous match, it got me a little worried, thinking about it too much and trying to be careful running around.

"Today I told myself, 'Don't think about it, even if you feel a little bit when you're moving around, just keep going.' And I did. It felt OK."

Clijsters takes a 9-8 head-to-head edge into the showdown, each winning four of their eight matches last year. But significantly, Henin-Hardenne triumphed in the ones that most mattered in Paris in June and New York in September.

It will be Clijsters' fourth attempt to win that elusive major title and she has another ally in the camp to encourage her to bust through the pain barrier at critical times tomorrow.

AFL champion Andrew McLeod and his wife Rachel flew from Adelaide to cheer her on and the Crows' midfielder's young son Connor had his first taste of the media bright lights when he accompanied Clijsters to the post-match conference.

Schnyder cast doubts on the severity of Clijsters' injury after her whipping southpaw style swung the Belgian back and forth across the court in searching baseline rallies.

"I don't see much of an injury when she's running. I don't think that was much of an injury," she said.

Clijsters showed no obvious pain as she raced through the opening set in just 23 minutes and seemed likely to give the ankle an easy afternoon when she established an early service break in the second.

But the Swiss left-hander dug in, reeling off four successive games and eventually stepped up to serve for the second set at 5-4.

She didn't even get close to deadlocking the contest. Clijsters smashed aside her serve and then dominated the tiebreak.

Henin-Hardenne revealed later that she had felt the weight of expectations as world No. 1 throughout the past fortnight.

"I had the feeling during my first matches that I had to win, I had to prove I'm the best player in the world, which is stupid because the most important thing is your attitude and the way you want to fight and the way you want to win," she said.

"I'm not going to be the favourite (tomorrow) because I'm No. 1. I mean, we have played unbelievable matches in our career. It's very hard to tell what's going to happen."

[Donny]

Injured Clijsters staying positive

By Scott Gullan - Fox


SERENA Williams believes it's inevitable that Kim Clijsters will become a grand slam champion to make women's tennis proud.

"I think she'll make a great champion because she is always positive. Even if inside she's dying, she always looks positive, she always smiles," Williams said of her young rival.

Today, Clijsters, 20, will need to call on all that courage and positivity when she carries a painful ankle injury into her Australian Open final against Belgian arch-rival Justine Henin-Hardenne.

The friendly, lovable girl we now know as "Aussie Kim" after her engagement to Lleyton Hewitt will start a clear outsider in the match that could become an arm-wrestle.

SportsTAB last night had Henin-Hardenne at $1.40 to win her third grand slam and Clijsters at $2.75 to win her first. The match is live on Channel 7 from 1.30pm.

The problem for Clijsters is that she has too often been in a position to win a grand slam but she has failed to nail it.

When that happens once it is put down as part of a learning curve. Twice it is a coincidence. But when there are regular meltdowns on the big stage people start whispering the word "Novotna". Jana Novotna went into folklore for her Wimbledon fall against Steffi Graf in 1993.

While it is unfair to put Clijsters in that pigeon hole just yet, she goes into today's final with a worrying tale of missed opportunities.

Only last year, in an Australian Open semi-final, she capitulated to Williams. She found herself in the perfect position to right the wrong at the next grand slam, the French Open, against Henin-Hardenne. It didn't happen, in fact it got very ugly, with Clijsters handing her countrywoman her maiden grand slam victory 6-0 6-4.

But Kim's positivity has never wavered. "I think I've come back stronger. I think you learn out of those matches, out of those losses. I think that's why I've become a better player," she said.

"Just the atmosphere in Melbourne, the whole city and everything. I really enjoy coming here," Clijsters said.

Clijsters blames her extensive doubles schedule last year for her grand slam blunders.

"I was just exhausted at the end of the tournaments," she said. "I was playing so many matches.

"It was too much. I didn't feel right, I was just exhausted. So that's something that I've learned.

"I really enjoyed playing my doubles and getting to No.1, that was very special for me and for Ai [Sugiyama] as well. So I'm very happy with what I did last year but I think I've done that now. This year I think I've become a little bit smarter ... you learn things every year."

Clijsters is adamant the problems of the past year haven't been inside her head and that Henin-Hardenne doesn't have a psychological hold over her.

"That's always something that they're going to keep saying, if you lose against her," Clijsters said with her trademark smile. "I definitely don't think it is the case."

[Donny]

Justine denies Clijsters

Fox


WORLD No.1 Justine Henin-Hardenne downed second seed Kim Clijsters in an all-Belgian Australian Open final today.

Henin-Hardenne claimed her third Grand Slam crown in beating Clijsters 6-3 4-6 6-3 in 1hr 47min.

The Belgian dynamo got home in a grimly-fought third set after Clijsters had fought back from 2-4 down to take the second set with two service breaks.

It is Henin-Hardenne's third Grand Slam title after wins last year in the French and US Opens.

It took her rivalry with Clijsters to 9-9 but she has now beaten her in seven consecutive WTA and Grand Slam finals.

Henin-Hardenne broke Clijsters' service twice to take the first set in 30 minutes.

But there was a dramatic turnaround late in the second set when Clijsters, looking headed for defeat after trailing 2-4, hit back breaking the world number one twice to level the sets score in 72 minutes.

Clijsters, who went into the final with an injured left ankle, had a battle to hold serve in the 10th game and was down a break point but served out for the second set 6-4 in 42 minutes.

She broke second seed Clijsters at 30-40 in the fifth game when Clijsters netted a forehand and then had three set points at 0-40 in the ninth game and claimed the set when Clijsters netted another forehand.

But Henin-Hardenne hit back strongly in the final set breaking Clijsters in the second and fourth games to lead 4-0.

Yet again Clijsters clawed back, breaking Henin-Hardenne twice but she could not serve it out to 4-4 losing service on a contentious line-call with television replays showing her forehand shot had landed on the line.

Henin served it out for the championship.