im Finds Her Feet On Clay
April 07, 2010
MARBELLA, Spain - Fresh off her second Sony Ericsson WTA Tour title of the
year on the hardcourts of Miami, Kim Clijsters made a successful transition
to clay of Marbella on Wednesday, grinding out her first match of the
Andalucia Tennis Experience in three sets against Romania's Alexandra Dulgheru.
Clijsters, who accepted a wildcard into the International event and is seeded
No.3, rallied from 2-4 to win the first set, 6-4, then gave away a one break
lead and lost a tie-break to see her opponent even it at a set apiece. But the
former No.1 rebounded to take the third set and the match, 64 67(1) 62.
"I haven't played a match on clay for three years so it was a nice experience,"
Clijsters said. "Mentally it's a completely different game. It takes time. I
want to get that feeling back as quickly as possible and there's no better
practice than playing matches, so I'm thrilled to be here. Hopefully I can
keep it up."
Check out photos from Marbella right now in the gallery!
Clijsters said Tournament Director and former player Conchita Martinez asked
her if she would play the tournament during her Miami run: "I had never been
here and so many players have said it's a beautiful tournament. As soon as I
was done in Miami, a few hours later, we flew over. It has been really fun so
far. I want to get as much preparation as possible - obviously the French
Open is the main goal, so the more matches I get here, the better."
Flavia Pennetta, the No.2 seed, also played her first round match, fresh off
winning the doubles title in Miami. The Italian cruised past Yaroslava Shvedova
in 67 minutes, 63 61. Other first round winners were Spaniards Laura Pous Tio
and Beatriz Garcia Vidagany, both qualifiers into the draw.
Flavia is blogging from Marbella this week... read it here!
The first two second round matches were also played, with No.4 seed Aravane
Rezai falling to Tatjana Malek, 64 62, but No.5 seed Maria Jose Martinez
Sanchez faring better, cruising past Italy's Alberta Brianti, 60 62.
The top-seeded team of Klaudia Jans and Vladimira Uhlirova was ousted in the
doubles quarterfinals by Polish duo Marta Domachowska and Alicja Rosolska in
a match tie-break, 26 64 119. Jans and Uhlirova had double match point at 9-7
in the breaker but lost four straight points and the match.