Now I have photos of two pregnant tennis stars on the homepage — Kim Clijsters and Anastasia Myskina, and who knows, soon we might add Nicole Vaidisova to the list — but don’t worry Women’s Tennis Blog won’t become a pregnancy-oriented blog. Anyway, for those of you still keeping track of retired Kim Clijsters, this is how the former world number one looks now.

What do you say? Not bad at all! Our Fiona lookalike seems very happy.

Kim Clijsters married US basketball player Brian Lynch in a secret wedding ceremony in Brussels, on July 13. She got married only a few days after the announcement of her pregnancy. (photo via WTA World)

Kim Clijsters played an exhibition match last month at the FORTIS Championships in Luxembourg. Pregnancy didn’t prevent the former world number one from playing her beloved tennis. Other participants at the exhibition included 1998 Wimbledon champion Jana Novotna, Roberto Blanco, and Dan Spogen.

Will Kim Clijsters follow the footsteps of Lindsay Davenport and make a comeback? I think she will, but I don’t think that will happen so shortly after giving birth as in Davenport’s case. Here’s what Clijsters herself said about this: "That is about the last thing on my mind. I'm not even half way through my pregnancy. I'll enjoy that first. I do play a bit once and a while though, together with Caroline Maes."

Some time ago, thinking it would be interesting to make a post that would consist of photos of female tennis players when they were kids, I started searching the Internet. Unfortunately, the only childhood photos I found were ones of Ana Ivanovic, so I gave up the idea. Now, completely unexpectedly, browsing the website of newly-wed and mother-to-be Kim Clijsters, I've come across some of her first photos with a tennis racket. Isn't she cute? Read more »

Retired tennis star Kim Clijsters married US basketball player Brian Lynch in a secret wedding ceremony in Brussels, on July 13th. She got married only a few days after the announcement of her pregnancy. I found these photos via wodjo, but you can see some more photos at Kim's official website.

Kim Clijsters has retired in May, after her short but successful career, in order to focus on her private life. Former world No. 1 is about to marry U.S. basketball player Brian Lynch, and the latest news is that she is pregnant.

Kim’s father said: "If everything goes well, then Kim will become a mother next year and me a grandfather. Yippee." (source: Reuters, photo: Getty Images)

Even though everyone was dissappointed by Kim's early retirement, I think that after all she made the right choice. I wish her all the best!

Kim Clijsters of Belgium was supposed to quit after the tournament in Stuttgart, taking place in October, but she changed her mind and retired May 6, 2007. Even though still in the top 5, she decided to retire after losing to qualifier Julia Vakulenko in Warsaw, and failing to defend her title.

Former world No. 1 in both singles and doubles had too many injuries in her career, so she decided to leave tennis at the young age of 23. "It's tiring to get out of bed and to use an hour just to warm up stiff muscles in the morning," she wrote in her online diary. "The constant injuries and continual rehabilitation … it makes it all even more difficult to go on." All those injuries lead to tiredness and lack of motivation. In addition, she's had enough of packing and unpacking, enough of jet lag and gossip in newspapers.

"It is time for a new life," she said. "Time for marriage. Time for children? Time also to relax and to play with my dogs. And especially to spend a lot of time with my family and friends."

The first Belgian player to be ranked No.1 in the world won 34 career singles titles and 11 doubles titles. She has one Grand Slam title, having won the 2005 U.S. Open.
Kim Clijsters will stay in our minds as not only a great player, but also a great person.

How often do injured players retire when closer to victory, and how often when they are losing? Which players are more likely to retire, and which stay in match even though they are losing?

Tennis Magazine, who did this research, took into account the top 20 players and calculated the proportion of times they retired when close to losing a match. The aim of their work was to determine which players retire when they see that defeat is near, which, as they believe, tells a lot about a person's attitude. So, matches where a player retired before the completion of the opening set, as well as those when a player withdrew while less than two games behind, were not included.

Some players are more prone to injuries, but you can see that some of them withdraw when they see that they can't win. It's evident that player's retirement affects the opponent as well as spectators. The opponent can't enjoy the victory as much, because things were left unfinished.

One of favorite WTA players, Kim Clijsters, had lots of injuries in her career, but retired while losing only once. Ana Ivanovic, Shahar Peer, Nicole Vaidisova and Martina Hingis have never left the match when behind.

On the other hand, an unbelieveable 11.4 % of Jelena Jankovic's defeats are retirements while losing, which is more than one in every nine losses. Players following Jankovic are Serena Williams and Anna Chakvetadze.

A spokesperson for the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour, who saw the results of the research, said: "There is no evidence that WTA Tour players do anything other than compete their very best." However, John Lloyd, British Davis Cup captain and former Australian Open finalist, claims that "really good champions don't feel they're going to lose until the last point, so they never throw in the towel."

I don't really agree with the view that players who are prone to retiring while losing are players with worse attitude and not real champions. It shows a certain part of their character, but it doesn't make them worse people, or worse players. They are simply like that (it's normal to lose interest when you see you have no chance to win), and after all, it's not forbidden to withdraw while behind.

(more at Tennis Magazine website)

The most likeable female tennis player, Kim Clijsters, decided Wimbledon to be the last Grand Slam of her career. This means that she won't play at the U.S. Open, which she won in 2005.

However, the former No.1 decided to play both singles and doubles at Wimbledon; "That way, I would be able to stay a bit longer at my last Grand Slam tournament," she announced on her website.

Clijsters has already withdrawn from the French Open, because she will be preparing for her wedding at that time. The 23-year-old Belgian will get married to Brian Lynch, American basketball player, on July 14, in her hometown of Bree.

Clijsters has had many problems with injuries during her career, and at the moment she is still recovering from a sore back which forced her to leave the Sony Ericsson Open early. Clijsters' next tournament is J&S Cup in Warsaw which starts on April 30, where she is the defending champion. "I'm not fully there yet, but I want to get used to clay again," world No.4 said.

Kim Clijsters will retire after the tournament in Stuttgart which starts on October 1. She wants to become a housewife who will support her husband and his career.

(sources: ESPN, BBC Sport)

Only three women from the top ten will take part in the first round of the Fed Cup — Svetlana Kuznetsova, Nadia Petrova and Anna Chakvetadze; they are all representatives of Russia.

Why won't the other highly ranked players compete in the Fed Cup?

• Top-ranked Justine Henin of Belgium wants to have enough time to prepare for the clay-season, as well as to treat her breathing problems. Her next tournament will be Warsaw, starting April 30.
• Maria Sharapova, Russia's highest-ranked player, won't make her Fed Cup debut because of injured shoulder and hamstring.
• France's Amelie Mauresmo is recovering from her appendectomy.
• Kim Clijsters, another Belgian top player, decided to skip the Fed Cup because of her busy schedule.
• Countries of Martina Hingis (Switzerland), Nicole Vaidisova (the Czech Republic) and Jelena Jankovic (Serbia) are not in the World Group.

Svetlana Kuznetsova's poor play in Miami cost her to go down two spots in WTA Tour Singles Rankings (from 3rd to 5th). Two players own her a favor for their higher ranking – Amelie Mauresmo returns to the top three, while Kim Clijsters jumps to the 4th place. Russia still has a representative in the 10th place, but this time a different one – Anna Chakvetadze replaced Elena Dementieva. There's one person who seems to have an enormous determination to return to the prestigious top ten and that is Serena Williams. This week she has jumped from number 18 to number 11.