Stay informed about Kim Clijsters Net Worth 2024, Age, Height, Bio, Birthday, Wiki. Discover expert viewpoints in this concise summary.
Kim Clijsters is one of the richest Tennis Player from Belgium. According to our analysis, Wikipedia, Forbes & Business Insider, Kim Clijsters's net worth $20 Million. (Last Update: December 11, 2023)
Her mother was a gymnastics champion and her father was a professional soccer player.
She became the first unseeded player to win the US Open with her victory in 2009, which came in the midst of her post-retirement comeback to the sport.
Clijsters was born on 8 June 1983 in Bilzen, a small town in northeastern Belgium. She grew up with her younger sister Elke in the nearby town of Bree in the Flemish province of Limburg. Kim is the daughter of Lei Clijsters and Els Vandecaetsbeek, both of whom were accomplished athletes. Her mother Els was a Belgian national artistic gymnastics champion. Her father Lei was a professional football defender who played for a variety of clubs in the top-flight Belgian First Division, including KV Mechelen with whom he won the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup in 1988. He was also a member of the Belgium national football team, tallying 40 caps and competing in two World Cups. Clijsters credits her parents for giving her a footballer’s legs and a gymnast’s flexibility. She also attributes her success to the freedom they gave her when she was a young player, saying, “Without the support I’ve had from my family, I wouldn’t be where I am. They’ve let me make my own decisions.”
Clijsters played two full seasons on the ITF Junior Circuit, the premier junior tour that is run by the International Tennis Federation (ITF). At the very end of 1997, she partnered with Zsófia Gubacsi to win her first ITF title in the doubles event at the Grade A Orange Bowl, one of the highest level junior tournaments. In 1998, Clijsters had her best year on the junior tour, finishing the season at career-high rankings of world No. 11 in singles and world No. 4 in doubles. She won two junior Grand Slam doubles titles, the French Open with Jelena Dokic and the US Open with Eva Dyrberg. She defeated her French Open partner Dokic in the US Open doubles final. In singles, she made it to the Wimbledon final, but finished runner-up to Katarina Srebotnik.
Clijsters has competed professionally from 1997 in an era in which her primary rivals were compatriot Justine Henin and 23-time Grand Slam singles champion Serena Williams. Coming from a country with limited success in men’s or women’s tennis, Clijsters became the first Belgian player to attain the No. 1 ranking. Together with Henin, she established Belgium as a leading force in women’s tennis as the two of them led their country to their first Fed Cup crown in 2001 and were the top two players in the world in late 2003. Individually, Clijsters has won 41 singles titles and 11 doubles titles on the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) Tour. She was a three-time winner of the WTA Tour Championships. Between singles and doubles, she has been a champion at all four Grand Slam tournaments, winning the US Open and the Australian Open in singles and Wimbledon and the French Open in doubles with Ai Sugiyama. Her success at majors has been highlighted by winning three consecutive appearances at the US Open.