Tears of Joy as the "Working Mom" Kim Clijsters, Claims her 2nd U.S. Open Title

Clijsters falls to her knees after claiming the 2009 U.S. Open

When this tournament started more than two weeks ago, Kim Clijsters, the 2005 U.S. Open Champion, had more than a few obstacles in front of her:

1) It was only her third tournament back.
2) She gave birth to a baby girl 18 months ago.
3) She had the toughest draw in the entire tournament.

That’s no exaggeration either, Kim Clijsters absolutely had the toughest draw in women’s tennis and won the title by beating 5 seeded players including the Williams sisters, Serena ranked #2 and Venus ranked #3. And let’s face it, the top seed, Dinara Safina was no threat - she was out by the 3rd round.

So what began as a possible experiment for Clijsters, slowly started to take the shape of an unlikely run to the championships. After taking out Venus in 3 of the strangest fourth round matches played in a long time at Flushing Meadows, the chance was there. The question was, could Clijsters seize it?

Clijsters ran over the the 18th seed, Na Li in the quarters, setting up a semifinal showdown against the most dominant woman in tennis during the past year, Serena Williams. Clijsters played a brilliant match and served possibly the best match of her life against Serena. Serena lost the match on a penalty point, but Clijsters had certainly earned the victory.

The “working mom” made it to the final where she faced her third top ten opponent in just four rounds, the 9th seeded player from Denmark, Caroline Wozniacki. The 19-year-old Wozniacki made a spirited contest of it in the first set. Both women combined to drop their serves seven times in the first set before Clijsters took it 7-5 and the next one 6-3.

She dropped to her knees as tears of joy ran down her face. Clijsters made the perilous climb into the family’s box and was treated to a standing ovation from the crowd. When Kim made her way back down, she posed for multiple pictures alongside of her 18-month-old baby girl and her husband. It was a touching end to a very strange tournament and Clijsters savored every moment of it.