Posted by Tom Perrotta, TENNIS.com
It's been a rough couple of weeks for the WTA Tour. Maria Sharapova is recovering slowly from shoulder surgery and remains on the sideline. The Indian Wells tournament lacked buzz on the women's side, largely because the Williams sisters do not play that event (the windswept, error-filled final, starring a wild Ana Ivanovic and the low-profile Vera Zvonareva, didn't help matters). Then on Tuesday, Larry Scott, the CEO who revamped the tour and worked wonders with prize money and sponsorship deals, announced he was leaving tennis to become commissioner of the NCAA's Pac-10 conference.
Women's tennis needs some good news, and quick. Kim Clijsters should provide it on Thursday. The former world No. 1 retired nearly two years ago at age 23; she's a mom now, and has already announced plans to play World Team Tennis this summer. Rumor has it she'll be on the pro tour soon and in search of wild cards, including one for a place in the U.S. Open draw.
Burnout -- the common tennis disease, which Clijsters suffered from when she retired -- isn't as popular in other sports. One never hears of top baseball or football players skipping a season, or two, because they no longer enjoy their profession. This isn't just because other athletes sign long-term contracts. Tennis has a longer season and it puts peculiar -- and intense -- demands on the mind: one-on-one competition, 11 months a year, with no teammates to relieve the pressure, plus lots of international travel. Ask any pro: Those ingredients can make for a frustrating professional life, no matter how rewarding it is.
More so than other athletes, tennis players benefit from some time away. Andre Agassi had some of his best years after he left the game because of injuries and burnout. Martina Hingis retired young and made a strong comeback. So did Jennifer Capriati.
Perhaps Clijsters has a chance to do as well, or better, than all those players in her return. This isn't a small player, like Hingis, returning to a game of bigger, stronger athletes. Clijsters has more speed and athleticism than anyone on tour today, save for Venus Williams. And she's still young: She won't celebrate her 26th birthday until June.
Clijsters won just one major title, but it was one of the toughest majors to win: The U.S. Open. (Take a look at past winners, and you'll find just one, Svetlana Kuznetsova, who might be deemed a fluke.) If Clijsters could win that event in 2005, when the women's game was stronger than it is today, there's no telling what she might do in the next few years if she remains healthy and the current crop of young contenders -- Ivanovic, Jelena Jankovic, and Dinara Safina -- remain maddeningly inconsistent. If Clijsters is committed to a full-length second act, there's no reason why she shouldn't return to the top of the sport.
Too bad she can't get started sooner. I hear the French Open is looking for a new champ.
