Comeback of the Decade!

Despite an unfortunate incident that marred her semifinal (more on that later), Kim Clijsters has completed the most unlikely of comeback tours. In her two warm-up tournaments, she notched wins Bartoli, Schnyder, Azarenka, and Kuznetsova, top 20 players all. She lost to Jelena Jankovic in her first tournament back and Dinara Safina in the second. That was a pretty impressive lead up, but still - I don't think anyone really expected this.

Kimmie notched wins over five seeds on her way to the championship, which is almost as many as she could have faced (six is the maximum, but Kristen Flipkens beat Anabel Medina Garrigues, the 20th seed) including both Williams sisters. Clijsters had beaten both of them in the same tournament once before, at the 2002 end of year championships in Los Angeles. Of course, Venus retired during that match, so there's technically an asterisk there, just like there may be for this match against Serena.

In addition to the sisters Williams, Clijsters beat Bartoli again (seeded 14th), Na Li (18) in the Quarters, and Wozniacki (9) in the final. She only dropped two sets: the first against Bartoli and the second, in a bagel, to Venus. Since she had last played the U.S. Open in 2005, when she won, she has now won her last 14 matches at Flushing Meadows.

Her achievement is stunning, almost unimaginable in any other sport. But it is difficult to say how much of her accomplishment stems from her own talent and effort, and how much is owed to the unusually weak mettle of the players at the top of the women's game, at this particular point in time. Was it a triumph for Kim? Or an indictment of the rest of the talent at the top of the game?

Kim's biggest spoilers when she was in the previous era of her game are either not around to trouble her (Justine Henin, Jennifer Capriati) or no longer at the tops of their games (Sharapova, Mauresmo). And the players who have risen to take their places have proven themselves to be inconsistent. The Serbs, Jankovic and Ivanovic, both made it to number one in the world (Ana even won a slam) but haven't been able to follow it up. The less said about Dinara Safina, the better. Svetlana Kuznetsova frequently beats herself on the court. Victoria Azarenka and Caroline Wozniacki (the two youngest players in the top ten) have shown promise, but Wozniacki's relatively easy run to the final is the best actual result. Perhaps the field really is weaker?

Then again, let's look at Kim. Back when she was playing regularly, she was one of the best. She was expected to win more than the one major she had managed. She had made 12 semifinals or better in the last 19 majors of the first stage of her career. Those aren't quite Federer numbers, but it shows her consistency and talent. It was her own mental fragility that kept her from making the breakthrough that had been expected of her for years - that and her countrywoman Justine Henin's better play in the big matches.

The other aspect of the first stage of Clijster's career that bears mentioning is how frequently she discussed her post-tennis plans. Even as a teenager, dating Lleyton Hewitt (Kimmie might be the only player on the WTA tour not to have dated Radek Stepanek) she talked about how much she was looking forward to getting married and starting a family. That was why she retired, while she was still in the top five.

In order to do that, she must have been unsatisfied with tennis. Professional tennis is a demanding lifestyle, especially when you're a top player. If you're making it to the semis or finals more often than not, you're playing every day in every week that you have a tournament. It's psychically draining, and it can be tough to keep up with the grind.

It seems to me that Kim is in a much better mental state than she was in 2006, and it's because she got her non-tennis life in order. It's exactly where she wants it to be. She has a loving husband and a beautiful child. Of course, that's not what every tennis player (male or female) wants, but it's definitely what she wanted.

I think that a lot of the top players that she's dealing with now are in the same place, mentally, that Kim was before she "retired." They're very talented, physically fit, but their heads aren't in the right place, so it's tougher to string together points, games, and matches. While Serena and Venus had some trouble in this particular tournament, they have been better in the big matches than the other players over the course of the past few years, and that's because they've done a better job of managing their on-court lives with what they do off the court.

In the end, Kim's comeback is not an indictment of the talent of the top players on tour, but it doesn't say good things about the mental states of their games. The other players at the top of the game need to learn how to manage their tennis lives without sacrificing every else. Kim demonstrates how strong you can be on the court, even when shaking off two years' worth of rust, when you're happy off the court as well.