Kim Clijsters pulled out an amazing comeback in round 4 of the 2011 WTA Sony Ericsson Open in Miami on March 29, stunning Ana Ivanovic who looked to have the match in the bag.
Leading 5-1, 40-0 in the decisive third set against No. 2 seed, Clijsters, No. 19 seed Ivanovic was one point away from the biggest win of her recent comeback. But then the wheels came off. Those three match points were wiped away. Two more followed. By the time it was over, Clijsters had prevailed 7-5 in the third-set tiebreaker and completed the most epic comeback on the WTA this year. And Ivanovic had a broken racquet.
After the match, Clijsters said, “Even if it’s 5-1, you start a game at 0-0. Your opponent has to win four points. You just try to work your way back into it. When you feel your opponent starts to be a little less aggressive and makes a few more mistakes, or looks at the sideline a little bit more, you noticed those things. That’s what made me think there was still a little chance.”
Ivanovic had this to say: “It’s very hard, yeah — you should see my racquet. But I felt like I did nothing wrong. I had my opportunities and she played some really good tennis. I fought hard and stayed with her the whole match. I’m of course disappointed but there are positives … I kind of broke my racquet, then kind of cried a little bit. And then I was OK.”
Unfortunately, that was to be the end of Clijsters’ winning streak, as she was defeated easily in the Quarterfinals by No. 8 seed, Victoria Azarenka 6-3, 6-3. Perhaps the major comeback took too much out of Clijsters, although Azarenka played three rather close 3-setters to get to the Quarterfinals. But then, that’s what makes tennis exciting. You never know who will come out on top on a given day.
