Playing her first competitive match since August, defending champion Kim Clijsters produced a clinical performance to dispose of Simona Halep in straight sets.
The Belgian showed no signs of the injury troubles that plagued her late last season in an impressive 6-1 6-4 victory.
“I felt that I was playing aggressively and moving well. So, for the first time [on court this year], I was pretty satisfied,” Clijsters said.
She also said the abdominal problem, which forced her to retire from a number of tournaments including the US Open at the back end of 2011, had left no lingering effects on her service action.
“I felt confident with my serve. I think that’s something that, in the past, wasn’t always the case.”
A visibly fit and firing Clijsters broke her younger opponent four times throughout the match, dictating play courtesy of her penetrative returns and groundstrokes launched from a dominant position on the baseline.
“If you can attack and put your and opponent under pressure with the return, you know, why wait,” she said.
The experienced Clijsters took the upper hand early, forcing Halep to defend two break points in her opening service game. To her credit, the young Romanian withstood the barrage to level the scores at 1-1.
But from that point on, a landslide first set belonged to Clijsters – heavy groundstrokes allowed her to control play from the back of the court and reel off five consecutive games to take it 6-1.
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She broke again early in the second before Halep, ranked a more-than-respectable 47th in the world, launched a mini-revival with a surprise break of her own to even the scoreboard at 4-4.
However, that momentary lapse seemed to refocus Clijsters’ concentration, and in the following game she immediately toppled Halep’s serve, giving herself the opportunity to close out the match with a 5-4 lead.
In front of a crowd that cheered her as a local, ‘Aussie Kim’ then sealed the victory in style with an off-forehand winner in a match that lasted just over an hour.
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On a lighter note, the other talking point post-match was the 28-year-old’s shorter hair, which she jovially described as “easier to manage”.
Clijsters’ second-round opponent will be either Ana Ivanovic or Austria’s Tamira Paszek, who will take to Pat Rafter Arena in Monday’s first match.
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