Goodbye Kim

Our Kim quits playing professional tennis as of today :( . Noooo way to soon. We knew that Kim Clijsters would stop somewhere during this season but at least I hoped she'd play until the fall.

In Antwerp in February she played for the last time in Belgium and there was a big emotional goodbye organised. Since that moment, apparently she cannot motivate to train anymore. She's in the midst of all preparations for her upcoming marriage so that is understandable. And if you are not motivated, it's better not to play.

But it's so disappointing though, she is still so young! She could still play so many games, win so many games!!! She could if she wanted to. And we'd be so proud of her.

She turned all of Belgium into tennisfans and now we cannot cheer for her anymore. No more msn statusses "hup Kim hup", no more secret scorewatching during work or sms'ing the score to friends. I remember her first grand slam final against Jennifer Capriati in 2001 at the French Open/Roland Garros. I had visitors in The Hague so I felt obliged to showed them around downtown. But we ended up watching the game in a TV store anyway. There was a big crowd there watching but we were kicked out of the store. Then we landed in a different smaller tv store and also there a group of people was frozen in front of the tv's. The people there actually kept the store open a bit longer so we could watch until the end! The 3rd set went up to 12-10! What a thriller. Then I discovered how fun tennis could be, thanks to Kim.

I am really going to miss her. We still have Justine in Belgium, but Justine Henin has a totally different personallity. I prefer Kim's outgoing relax attitude, even when she got less dedicated to tennis because of that. It's cool that she has different interests as well. She honestly seems to like people even her opponents and that has made her such a beautiful champion.

Fortunately Justine is very very dedicated to tennis still and I suspect she'll still be the world number one for a while. So from now one...Hup Justine hup.

Comments

Allie said…
Oh ... that is sad. I really liked Kim too! Now who am I going to cheer for in tennis?

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