| Kim Clijsters. AFP PHOTO |
MELBOURNE: Defending champion Kim Clijsters has beaten the top seed but she will need to overcome injury as well as Belarus’s Victoria Azarenka as she aims to round off her Australian Open career with a flourish.
The Belgian mother-of-one, who will retire this season, has battled into the semifinals despite rolling an ankle in the fourth round against Li Na, an injury which needed intensive treatment before her quarter-final.
The ankle damage, the latest in a series of injuries, needed icing every 20 minutes and it limited Clijsters to one practice session before her last-eight win over Caroline Wozniacki, which cost the Dane her world number one ranking.
Clijsters missed months at the end of last season with an abdominal problem and she suffered a hip spasm which forced her out of this year’s Brisbane International. She has also had a scan in Melbourne for a neck problem.
But the four-time grand slam winner, 28, will still look to impose herself on third seed Azarenka, 22, a rising star who is now into her second grand slam semifinal.
“It’s going to be very important to be dominant,” Clijsters said. “She’s improved a lot on her fitness and her movement, which was definitely a weakness in the past.”
Both women have had tricky paths to the semi-finals after initially enjoying easy starts to the tournament.
Clijsters stared down four match points against Li in the fourth round, and then clinically took top-ranked Wozniacki’s game apart in the quarters.
Azarenka thrashed Iveta Benesova in the round of 16 before struggling to overcome Agnieszka Radwanska in three sets in the quarterfinals.
The two women are immensely powerful with no obvious weaknesses and they are evenly matched, a fact acknowledged by the 28-year-old Belgian.
“She’s playing extremely well, playing with a lot of confidence,” Clijsters said. “So it will be tough. I’ll have to play some of my best tennis to try and beat her.”
Azarenka, who reached the same stage at Wimbledon last year before falling to eventual champion Petra Kvitova, said she would try to blank out her opponent and the size of the occasion.
“Kim is great champion. She knows how to be in the situation, handle big matches,” she said. “But we’ll see. I just try to stay fresh out there, you know, and keep playing my game.”
Azarenka also believes she’s in the best shape of her life after intense physical conditioning in the off-season.
“I think I’m in the best shape physically right now, so it kind of helps other aspects of the game. I don’t know. I feel pretty good out there,” she said.
Meanwhile Clijsters detailed a recovery programme for her injured ankle which leaves her little time to concentrate on her next opponent.
“Laying on the couch, every 20 minutes ice, 20 minutes off, 20 minutes ice, 20 minutes off. Leg elevated, lymphatic drainage, all that stuff,” she said.
“Instead of really focusing on the match you’re focusing on trying to get the ankle as good as possible.”
The two have played six times previously, with Clijsters having a 4-2 advantage. However, Azarenka had a straight-sets win at their most recent meeting, in Miami last March — on her way to winning the title.
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