Clijsters Loses Match, Possibilty of No.1 Ranking

With Kim Clijsters’ loss Wednesday to Amelie Mauresmo 3-6, 6-7 at the WTA Championships, Clijsters will not likely advance out of round robin competition to challenge American Lindsay Davenport for the year end number one ranking. Clijsters is 0-2, while Davenport is 2-0 in competition thus far.

Are you serious? You mean there’s no way Maria Sharapova can catch Davenport? Somebody? Anybody? OK, I suppose I’ll have to accept reality.

What can I say? That I’ve never liked Lindsay Davenport? That I was never so happy as I was during Wimbledon 2005, when Venus came back from being down a set and a break, to beat her in the final? But Davenport was gracious in defeat, wasn’t she? Yadda, yadda, yadda...

But I digress. Clijsters struggled during her match Wednesday, only winning 37% of points on her second serve, and committing 36 unforced errors, to 22 winners. Though she has not been in top form this week, she has had a good year, hasn’t she? Nine titles, to number one Lindsay’s six. Those nine include a Grand Slam; Lindsay can’t say that. Clijsters picked up a $2.2 million dollar check at that Grand Slam (the U.S. Open), for winning the U.S. Open series in dominant form. No multi-million dollar checks for Davenport either (yet anyway).

So should Clijsters fret over not ending the year at number one, and winning the year end championship? She won the WTA Championships in 2002 and 2003, and did not play last year. After missing 2004 with injury troubles, I think she had a terrific, comeback year. While being number one would have been nice, she’ll have plenty to smile about looking back on 2005.