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Rediff.com  » Sports » Clijsters speeds into third round

Clijsters speeds into third round

By Pritha Sarkar
Last updated on: January 18, 2007 11:30 IST
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Kim Clijsters's final ride at the Australian Open gathered momentum on Thursday when she motored into the third round with a 6-3, 6-0 win over Japan's Akiko Morigami.

The Belgian, who produced a ruthless 6-0, 6-0 exhibition in her opening match, was unperturbed at being broken twice in the opening set and reeled off eight successive games to seal victory in 59 minutes.

"Everything went pretty good," said the 23-year-old, who will be retiring at the end of the season.

"In the beginning of the match, I wasn't moving quite as well as I did in the first match.

"But overall just looking at the statistics and looking at my opponent, I think I did everything pretty well, and I did what I had to do. I won in two pretty easy sets so I'm not complaining."

Clearly wanting to leave her mark in her final appearance at Melbourne Park, the 2005 U.S. Open champion even tried to pull off an unconventional winner at 4-2 up in the first set.

Chasing the baseline in an attempt to retrieve Morigami's shot, the fourth seed improvised.

Grabbing the racket with both hands and with her back still turned towards the net, she smacked the ball over her head, hoping against hope that it would clear her side the court.

It did not.

She saw the funny side of her efforts and shook her head in laughter as the crowd roared their approval.

For Morigami, her second successive defeat against Clijsters was no laughing matter as she wilted under a barrage of stinging groundstrokes from the Belgian.

She will next play Ukrainian Alona Bondarenko.

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Pritha Sarkar
Source: REUTERS
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