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Knack Magazine's 2001 People of the Year Cover Story (Kim Segment for Sportswoman of the Year) December 19, 2001 Knack Magazine by Dirk Gerlo At Roland Garros she ended on 2 points from her first Grand Slam title in an already legendary final. It can't be that long before she will wield with a bowl of her own in London or Paris, everyone is convinced about that. But Kim Clijsters doesn't allow herself to be made crazy: "I do realise that consolidating will be difficult enough next season." Wednesday November 14. Sports Palace Antwerp. The Brilliant Game. 12,000 fans of Justine Henin and mainly Kim Clijsters forget the match between Belgium and Tsjechia in the World Cup Soccer competition for what it is and come to thank the successful duo for the just ended tennis year. The public enjoys the caprices of the duo Mansour Bahrami and Ilie Nastase, teamed up with the Limburg youngsters Kirsten Flipkens and Elke Clijsters, and after that a dozen nice shots from the Fed Cup winners. Anyone who has seen the duo at work in Madrid can tell that the cream is off, but the duo makes the best of it and receives applause from the thankful public. Pop singer Koen Wauters from Clouseau kneels down and starts the song of praise. To Kim Clijsters amongst other things: "There she hits… and such a forehand I have never seen." The 18-year-old Kim Clijsters is radiant. After the exhibition match, in a burst of teenage enthusiasm, she also puts her signature on the cheek of coach Carl Maes, kisses here and there and next runs away from all the excitement and the admiration to Bree and Australia. There the world number one, boyfriend Lleyton Hewitt awaits her, first the finals of the Masters Cup and the Davis Cup and then a few weeks of vacation and rest before the 2002 season. The life of Kim Clijsters, like in 99 and 2000, has again got into a roller coaster in 2001. For the first time she was allowed to play unlimited tournaments and the result is impressive. Clijsters started the year at number 18 and ended number 5. At all tournaments she played she was seated and that is a luxury starting position, because you can only meet the strongest competitors at a later stage in the competition, at Melbourne Park, Clijsters reached the quarterfinals at Wimbledon and was in the quarterfinals at Flushing Meadows. At Roland Garros, where the world got to know her, she ended on two points from her first Grand Slam title in an already legendary final against Jennifer Capriati (10/12 in the longest third set in the history of the tournament). There in Paris on the 9th of June Clijsters in no doubt obtained her greatest satisfaction in sports and also her greatest disillusion at the same time. She also ended up in the finals at Den Bosch and Indian Wells with, among others, a win over Martina Hingis, who was at that time still the world number one. Titles came up as of the summer, at Stanford where she for the first time won over Davenport, the current number one, at Leipzig where she was defending her title and at Luxembourg where she won her first WTA tournament back in 1999. At the Masters in Munich Davenport appeared to be just a bit too strong during the semi finals. The successful end of the year followed a week later in Madrid with the first ever victory of Belgium in the Fed Cup, the unofficial world championships for women. During her very strong second part of the season Clijsters proved that she deserved the place in the top ten which she captured in Paris, and that she possesses the maturity to hold that place permanently. Clijsters wraps up the year as follows: "Paris and the Fed Cup, but also my tournament victories and the victories over top ten players such as Hingis were the toppers. I am also very satisfied about my progress in matters of consistency, certainly in the second half of the season. We have trained very hard on that and it certainly paid off." WELCOME AT EACH TABLE The 18 year old Limburg girl didn't only do well in sportive matters. Earlier this year her colleagues elected her, out of 8 nominees, as the winner of the Sportsmanship Award, an award for the most sympathetic and the fairest player on the tour. Players say that Clijsters, even now that she has climbed up the rankings into the exclusive top ten world, is a welcome guest at each table in the players restaurant, and that she can make some practical jokes with almost everyone because she is loved that much. There is no area in which Clijsters didn't make any progress. Coach Carl Maes: "At the tactical level she has found a certain balance in her game. She realises that not each ball has to be a winner. Kim plays now more with pace; she waits more for her opportunities. The past year Kim has mentally become a woman on and off court. Last year she was already quite grown-up on court, but from time to time, not consistent enough, more like an adolescent. Now she is aware of each situation she is in. The problem however is that it will be more and more difficult for her to be herself. Going to the movies, a restaurant or just simply going shopping has become almost impossible in Belgium. She ends up being accosted everywhere. That also becomes more and more difficult abroad, although she still remains spontaneous and can cope well with the pressure. An hour before her quarterfinals against Sanchez-Vicario at the Masters, she was still playing with the little dog of the Spanish player. But an hour later she can show a fist on court though." The higher the players climb up the rankings, the more extensive their "entourage" often becomes. Quite a number of men, but also more and more women, travel around the world with a psychologist, a kinesiologist, a fitness trainer, a sparring partner-nothing of that kind with Kim Clijsters. Coach Carl Maes, regularly father Leo, and from time to time mother Els, accompany her. "That is enough," says Leo Clijsters. "Kim has shown enough strength of mind since childhood to keep straight. When I was a soccer player I saw that for example psychologists can do as much harm as good. We certainly don't need them now. Not that they don't offer their services. On the physical matters regular visits to the doctor and the physiotherapists of the tour are sufficient. At the exception of the coach her entourage is particularly family-oriented." Clijsters "profits" of course from her relation with Lleyton Hewitt. Hewitt is first of all her boyfriend, but he also knows her world from the inside. He can be 3 weeks without Kim because he knows that she is away for her "job," and vice versa as well. Clijsters and Hewitt, coincidence or not, are tactical complementary. She probably has picked up unconsciously some of the game of the Australian, who is rather a counter puncher type and doesn't hit hard to hit hard, who waits for his opportunities. This reasoned game-type we more and more find with Clijsters. Just like Hewitt has started to play a bit more aggressive tennis maybe by watching his girlfriend's matches often. The two probably also stimulate each other in the field of the achievements which became only better and better. And then there is Leo Clijsters, the father. He doesn't like to be in the picture, but is omnipresent to guard the freedom and interests of his daughter. A couple of days per week he is as good as full time occupied by managing and negotiating contacts and deals. Days with 60 or 70 phone calls on or for Kim were in the past months the standard instead of the exception. Dad Clijsters deals with questions from schools, children, clubs or sponsors who all want something with or from his daughter. He is the big bogeyman to the press. Long interviews with him or her have almost become as good as impossible, because everyone wants something and the free time of his daughter is rare, he argues. Each week he receives a handful of sponsor offers from people or companies who want to sponsor Kim. But whoever resquests too much time from Kim, even when offering a lot of money, will be turned down. For the time being the list of sponsors can be counted on one hand. Leo Clijsters: "We want to be free in our decision-making. That's why Kim is not under contract with one or another management company. We have good contacts with for example IMG and Octagon (two international management companies taking care of the interests of most of the tennis players), sometimes they also introduce us some deals for which we pay them a fee, but our independence gives us the advantage that we don't need to accept what we don't like. I try to take care of as much as possible that Kim can play tennis carelessly. Someone like Anna Kournikova is in fact the victim of her extreme commitments with all kinds of sponsors, through which she is not enough occupied with her game. Kim has become a lot more adult the past year. When I talk to her, she takes a point of view more easily and motivates her decisions. But she doesn't have the need to manage everything on the business part, so there is a role for me." FATHER AND DAUGHTER Coach Carl Maes speaks about a strong relationship between father and daughter. He has seen a change in his own role. To the young teenager he was a coach on more than only the tennis matters, but he was also part time educator, companion. "Now I am stand-by," he says. "The biggest work has been delivered in the past years. Now I see that it is good. I also notice more and more that Kim got a lot from her dad. Not that Leo is her psychologist but he takes care that Kim feels simply good. She likes that he is there in the mornings at breakfast, at dead moments. They have a bond that is so clear to see. There are a lot of tennis fathers who can't cope with such a relation when success is there, or they will claim it themselves. With Leo and Kim, the bond only gets more intense, sometimes even at the expense of sponsors and the press because they can't get free access to Kim." In 1998, the year in which she played her first WTA tournament, Kim ended at number 409 in the rankings. In 1999 she climbed up to number 47, and in 2000 she finished at number 18 and now at number 5. Much higher it therefore can't get. The numbers 1 to 4 are for Davenport, Capriati, Hingis and Venus Williams. The four still have an advantage of 1000 points or more on Clijsters and these you don't collect immediately, she realises. "1000 points is a lot. But I don't calculate whether I can close that gap quickly. Next year I will simply live from one week into the other, without putting too much pressure on myself. I do realise that consolidating will already be difficult enough next year. But I will give it all because I still enjoy every ball that I hit." This enjoyment is very important in the future according to Carl Maes: "You may not forget that it is going steep upwards since the past 6 years. I think that we only really will see how much Kim likes to play if she stagnates or even falls back. Then we will discover if she has the courage to come back or to maintain a certain level. Now of course everything is still new. I do believe that Kim still can make progress. She has gathered a huge amount of experience at the important tournaments, and has become far more consistent in mainly the second part of the season and you no longer can get her easily out of balance. Opponents have got also more and more respect for her, which is already a plus at the start of a match. For the time being I think that only the two Williams sisters are too strong. Technically they are not so accomplished but they are impressive physically. Normally they have to become the number one and two on the rankings. For the rest Kim can take on everyone, she herself is also convinced about that." And that is also the opinion of a few opponents. At Roland Garros, Capriati said that it wouldn't be that long before Kim might show off with such a top trophy of her own. Nobody was a match against her tennis play during the first set then, according to the American. Martina Hingis told after her defeat early in the season at Indian Wells that Clijsters would join the absolute top very quickly now. Lindsay Davenport wraps up: "Kim has made astonishing progress. She has taken the difficult step from number 20 to 5 very easily. At 18 she was already at two points from a Grand Slam victory, who else can claim that? She has gotten more consistent in the past months, she is athletic and determined, and she builds up her points very well also. Kim is a permanent value in the little circle of top players."