With the current suspension of the ATP and WTA tours, we are opening up our US Open vault to bring you full match videos of classic encounters through the years in New York.
Join us Saturday at 4 p.m. ET for the latest #USOpenClassics on Facebook Live and Twitter. Next up in the series is a full-match live stream of the 2010 semifinal between Kim Clijsters and Venus Williams. The full match will be posted on Sunday on the US Open YouTube Channel.
Kim Clijsters came out of retirement to win the 2009 US Open as a wild card, getting past both Venus and Serena Williams before defeating Caroline Wozniacki to become the first mother to win the US Open since Margaret Court in 1973. One year later, she again faced Venus in Arthur Ashe Stadium in a rematch of their bizarre 2009 encounter, which Clijsters won, 6-0, 0-6, 6-4, in the Round of 16.
The 2010 semifinal was the 13th match of their career head-to-head, with the competitors coming in at a dead heat with six wins apiece. They were neck-and-neck that night in Ashe too, with the match finely poised at 4-all, 30-all in a decisive third set, before Clijsters made the telling breakthrough—and break—with an exquisite backhand lob.
The Belgian, who came out of retirement to return to tennis again in February of 2020, went on to soundly defeat Vera Zvonareva in the final to win her third US Open. By defending her title, she became the first back-to-back US Open women's singles champion since Venus accomplished tht feat from 2000-01.
Between her 2005, 2009 and 2010 US Open titles, Clijsters won 21 straight matches in New York, missing 2006-08 through a combination of injuries and a two-year retirement. (The streak reached 22 after a first-round win in 2011.) She beat Venus in each of her three title runs, though the two never met in the championship match.
Clijsters followed up her 2010 US Open title with another Grand Slam trophy at the 2011 Australian Open—her only Slam victory outside of New York—before retiring for a second time after the 2012 US Open. For Venus, following her semifinal run, she did not reach the quarterfinal stage at a Slam again until the 2015 Australian Open. But the American legend rebounded in a big way in 2017, reaching the Australian Open and Wimbledon finals, as well as the US Open semis.
Watch the full #USOpenClassics match via Facebook Live and Twitter on Saturday at 4 p.m. ET.
