Kim Clijsters: I cried when Serena announced her farewell - Legends’ Voice

Serena Williams recently announced she will be evolving” away from professional tennis and I absolutely loved the article she wrote in Vogue magazine about her decision.

The US Open is expected to be her farewell tournament and I think no matter how experienced she is; she's not experienced when it comes to this. She has been a player who plays with so much emotion, so it's going to be very interesting to see how she'll handle all that, knowing that every match that she plays in New York could be the last one.

Going into a tournament knowing it’s the last one of your professional career was quite a challenge for me. You're being pulled both ways; on one hand you're trying to tell yourself, ‘Look, try to just focus on your tennis, this is just another tournament like you've been doing for so many years’. But then on the other hand you realize this is the last time for everything that you do; whether it’s getting your bag ready for a match, or something else, it's like, ‘Is this going to be the last time that I do this here?’

When I announced my retirement ahead of time, especially the first time I stepped away in 2007 (NDLR: Kim came back 2009-2012 and a second time in 2020), I did that because it was just how I was feeling. I needed to give myself a deadline, like okay, I'm going to put everything into my tennis for another year and I just was very open about sharing that because in my head, I couldn't know all that without sharing it with the media. That was just how I took it. Everybody approaches this differently.

After my last match, I remember I felt very relieved – not to lose but when I knew that it was done. So we'll see how Serena will take it. I'm sure it's going to be very emotional. I was already crying when she announced it earlier this month; I had tears in my eyes when I saw her in Canada, when she said goodbye after her loss there. I was watching her on-court interview and you can just see all the emotions that came up. It's a very impactful change in your life; being a part of the tennis generation that almost came up at the same time when Serena did, it's incredible to see how long she's managed to stay on, and her sister Venus as well.

To see Serena now closing that chapter in her life, it kind of... we all know life goes on, but this is a huge, huge moment and it makes you reflect on the years and the moments shared with her; like the first time I played her, the first time I remember seeing her, some things that you remember from all the years on tour and seeing a young girl growing into this icon, not just in tennis, but in sport. It's really fun to have been part of that generation for the last 20 plus years.

The first time I met or played Serena was actually at the US Open, I think it was 1999. I played her in the third round and that was her first Slam win and it was a really, really close match. I was this unknown girl; a young kid from Belgium, this really small country. And Serena, also, not a lot of people knew about her. They knew the story of these two sisters that haven't played juniors and they're coming out and they're going to dominate and the type of tennis that they bring. There was this buzz about them in tennis circles.

When I played her, I think I was up 5-2 in the third and I ended up losing because my arm all of a sudden just felt heavy. It was on Louis Armstrong, the second biggest court at the US Open. At 5-2 I felt like, ‘Okay, I have a chance’. She was making some unforced errors and all of a sudden, like a typical Serena kind of thing, she just switched on; ripping returns, aces, something triggered her, she got mad or something and she was able to step it up and that's been kind of the story of her career. We've been seeing that for so many years, how she's been able to do that when she's down or out and a lot of people, even commentators, are talking about, ‘Yeah, this might be it, Serena might be out of the tournament’. And then she kind of built that reputation of like, alright, she can turn it on whenever she feels like it or gets triggered a little bit or gets that adrenaline going.

I remember, Richard, her father, coming up to me after the match. He was super nice and just said, ‘Oh, you're a great player, keep up the good work and you guys are going to have so many great battles’. So that was kind of my first interaction with Serena and then with her dad afterwards.

Our rivalry was very significant for my career because I remember very well how I played against several hard-hitters; I played against Lindsay Davenport, I played against Monica Seles, but there was nobody who was as explosive as Serena, who could do the movement with the power. And over time she developed an overall game, where she has to touch, she has the slice, she has the serve-and-volley, she has the volleys; the confidence in her overall game grew over the years and I could feel that definitely standing across the net from her.

In the beginning it was the power, the athleticism that was incredible, so that made me feel like, ‘Okay, this is another level’. And I knew I had to work harder and harder and focus on becoming stronger, becoming fitter, because that was the new level where women's tennis was heading. So it gave myself and also my coaches the push to try and find a counter-punching way of dealing with the strength and the power that is coming at you and that was definitely the case early on; working to become faster, injury prevention, learning how to deal with the long rallies at a high intensity, moving side-to-side, sliding... So that definitely became an approach that I think my team knew that, okay, if you want to compete with the best, that's what you got to work on. And I'm sure it's not just for me, it's for everybody I think who came up at that time. I think Justine Henin too and everybody in that generation realised, ‘Okay, this is a different intensity’.

I see the impact Serena has had on this current generation as well. Now that I live in the States, I see how tennis is not a sport that comes up in a lot of kids’ minds when they're younger. I see it in our area here in New Jersey, I see it in the communities around; tennis is not the sport that a lot of kids think of unless the parents are really involved, because it's just not as accessible. So I, without a doubt, believe in the impact that the Williams sisters have had on the younger generation, we see the influence of it right? We see Madison Keys, we see Sloane Stephens, Naomi Osaka, Coco Gauff... there are so many young girls that look up to them. It's the impact that they've had on multiple generations and it's evident even outside of tennis. Like Serena sharing her story about giving birth and the problems that she dealt with; that goes so far beyond just a tennis player on tour who's thinking about becoming a parent. And just to be able to share her story and to see the vulnerability that she has shared in the documentary, in her interviews, I think it's something that reaches so much further than I think any tennis player has ever done; to a level where it really impacts people at home who don't have the opportunity to come in touch with tennis or to watch her play live or to buy a subscription on TV. So there's definitely a huge impact in that sense.

Serena, without a doubt, tried her absolute best to reach her goals. I think not enough people realise how amazing her achievements were after she had her daughter Olympia. With so many people, the focus was always on the all-time Grand Slam record Serena was trying to reach. Because when you're that good, and you've won 23 Grand Slams, and you’re hoping to get to that 24th one, that’s all people talk about. But to make four Grand Slam finals within a year and a half after your daughter is born is absolutely incredible. And there was not enough focus on that I think and not enough respect for it, for what Serena did there at that stage. It was such a big moment that I feel like the focus was too much on what she wasn't achieving rather than what she is achieving.

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Kim Clijsters joins the Eurosport team for US Open coverage alongside Mats Wilander, Barbara Schett, Alex Corretja and John McEnroe.