Clijsters Confident As The Open Approaches

FLUSHING MEADOWS, NY – New York Mets pitcher Mike Pelfrey had a gem of a game Friday night, throwing eight scoreless innings, but none of the pitches he threw were a good looking as the first one of the game.

You see, US Open defending champion Kim Clijsters toed the rubber to throw out the first pitch. With the Open starting Monday, what better way to celebrate the one of the biggest sporting events in the United States than to tie it in to the National Pastime.

Yet, you can forgive Clijsters for throwing it high and outside, as she is new to the game.

“It was fun,” she said, adding that her husband Brian Lynch is a big baseball fan. “I’m not saying I’ll sit there for hours and watch the whole game, but obviously once in a while I’ll watch the highlights on the website or whatever. I watch some highlights.”

Fun, sure, but that ended Friday. Now she has a title to defend.

“My attitude isn’t any different compared to last year,” Clijsters said. “Obviously last year had probably a few more unanswered questions but this year I know what I have to do if I want to try and do as well as I did last year.”

She won her 38^th Tour singles title earlier this month in Cincinnati and now will be looking for her third US Open title, also taking the 2005 championship. A win will in Flushing Meadows will give her a fourth championship in 2010 with titles in Brisbane in January, and Miami in March.

Yet, she lost to Nadia Petrova during the third round of the Australian Open, and was forced to withdraw from Roland Garros with a foot injury. She had a Grand Slam comeback at Wimbledon reaching the Quarterfinals, yet lost in three sets to Vera Zvonareva.

But Flushing is home for the Belgian. It’s not only the site of her two Grand Slam wins; her husband is from New Jersey, where the couple maintains a home with their two year-old daughter Jada Ellie.

And as she returned to Flushing Meadows, the memories of 2009 came right back to her.

“You relive the details a little more, the things you forgot faster than the title and the celebration,” Clijsters said. “It’s the little things when you come back you pick up a little more. They make it nice.”

And this year, the second seed is considered one of the favorites by many, especially since Serena Williams is out with a foot injury.

“Obviously there are a lot of other players who have as big a chance as anybody to win this year,” Clijsters said. “It’s a very interesting US Open this year.”

Indeed. Williams’ sister Venus is ranked No. 3 with Pilot Pen winner, and last year’s runner-up Caroline Wozniacki holding the top spot.

“She is a great player,” Clijsters said of Wozniacki. “You don’t get there by luck. She definitely deserves to be up there.”

So it’s going to be a tough fight. But if Clijsters is able to defend her title, she will definitely cap off a banner year and who knows, maybe the Mets will bring her back, this time to take some batting practice.