Kim Clijsters has been forced to work extremely hard in her second round match on Rod Laver Arena, battling the persistent Thai Tamarine Tanasugarn for one hour and 39 minutes before finally prevailing 6-3 6-3.
bet365 is live streaming all Australian Open 2010 games - Go to bet365 > Live Streaming > Tennis to watch a live stream
Although the scoreline would often suggest an easy match, Clijsters struggled to put away her former top 20 opponent, frequently finding herself locked in deuce battles and often missing targets with her normally reliable groundstrokes.
The 32-year-old Tanasugarn effectively absorbed Clijsters’ power and chased down everything that was thrown at her, but ultimately could not impose her compact baseline game on the world No. 15 effectively enough.
Clijsters said that although she didn’t play her best tennis during the match, she hoped to peak when it was necessary.
“Tammy was very tricky. I haven't played her for a few years. I was actually surprised to see she was still playing,” she said.
“But she's very, yeah, like I said, tricky. (It is) very hard to read her game, as well. Tricky serve, there's not much on it. But she doesn't give you anything where you can just step in and hit a lot of winners or really, yeah, go for a lot.
“So I just had to kind of be patient, wait for the right shot to go for it.”
It seemed the match would be a cake-walk for the Belgian as she raced to a 3-0 lead, utterly dominating with her baseline power, superior serve and brilliant athleticism.
Tanasugarn appeared on the board with a service hold in the fourth game, but Clijsters was soon ahead 4-1 and recording impressive statistics – in five games she had already smacked 14 winners and committed just five errors.
The gritty Thai worked to establish herself more firmly in the set. A service hold in the sixth game was followed by a break, and soon the match was back on serve.
Clijsters, blessed with considerably more firepower than her diminutive opponent, immediately broke back to lead 5-3 and despite struggling on serve in the ninth game, she prevailed and clinched the first set in 40 minutes.
The match took a turn at the beginning of the second set, with the Thai underdog saving two break points in the opening game and breaking Clijsters in the second game on her way to a 3-0 lead.
Tanasugarn was now looking dangerous from the baseline, using her flat, powerful groundstrokes to dictate play and scrambling well when forced onto the defensive.
Unfortunately for the world No. 99, her lead was short-lived. Clijsters showed great resolve to hold serve in the fourth game and break after a tough contest in the next game to bring scores back to 2-3.
After leveling at 3-3, Clijsters scored a second break in a pivotal seventh game that featured five deuces and some intense points. It looked as if the Belgian had finally won the mental battle.
However, when ahead 4-3, Clijsters was again forced to work hard on serve, finally consolidating her break in a game that featured a further three deuces and two Tanasugarn break points.
The final game again went to deuce before Clijsters forced a volley error from the racquet of the Thai veteran to secure the win and progress to the third round. She finished with 35 winners to 26 errors and threw in six aces.
Clijsters will next face No. 19 seed Nadia Petrova, a 6-4 6-4 winner over Estonian Kaia Kanepi. The Belgian said it would be a tough encounter.
“I actually saw her match against Justine last week in Brisbane; it was a very high-level match.
She obviously has a great serve. She's tall. She really has a very clean serve,” Clijsters said.
“I have to try to be really consistent obviously, but really try to go for the lines and make her move because, you know, she's a tall girl. Usually tall girls, they're not the greatest movers around. Obviously that's something that I'm definitely going to try to take advantage of.
“I have had some tough matches against her in the past already. She hits the ball very flat. So it will be tough. But it's good.”
Bet & Watch on the Australian Open live online at bet365 > Live Streaming Tennis