Tennis Greats: Kim Clijsters Trivia Quiz

Answer: Gymnastics

Kim's mother, Els Vandecaetsbeek, was a national champion in artistic gymnastics and her father, Lei ("Leo") Clijsters, played professionally as a defensive footballer. Clijsters has said that she inherited her leg strength from her father, but her flexibility from her mother and that both qualities helped her to become the tennis player she was. Leo and Els divorced in 2005 and upon being asked about it by media outlets, Kim's philosophical response was, "It's life".

Answer: Belgium

Kim was born in Bilzen, Belgium and represented her country of birth for her entire junior and professional career. In addition to being inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame, Clijsters was also named Belgium's Sportswoman of the Year eight times!

Answer: Luxembourg

Kim won her first title in 1999 at the tournament in Luxembourg, Luxembourg at the age of 16! It was only her fourth event on the professional tour and perhaps she found it auspicious because she returned to compete there four more times over the next five years. In total, Kim won the Luxembourg singles tournament five times plus one title in the doubles draw.

Answer: She dated an Australian tennis player

Clijsters was in a relationship with and then engaged to Australia's own tennis star, Lleyton Hewitt, for four years. Even after they parted ways, the nickname endured and when she won the Australian Open title in 2011, she referenced the nickname in her victory speech telling the crowd, "I feel like you guys can call me 'Aussie Kim' [now] because I won the title".

Answer: 1

On August 11 2003, Kim Clijsters overtook Serena Williams to hold the #1 spot in the WTA rankings. She was the first woman to be ranked #1 without having won any of the four 'Grand Slam' major tournaments. Although that first stint at the top would only last ten weeks, she would return to the peak again and by the end of her professional tennis career, she'd been at the top of the proverbial heap for a total of twenty weeks.

Answer: Marriage

Clijsters met Brian Lynch in 2005 when the latter was playing basketball professionally. The two bonded over owning bulldogs as pets and this initial connection blossomed into romance.

With the media showing significant interest in their nuptuals, the pair chose to marry in a small civil ceremony at dawn on July 13 2007 in her hometown of Bree, with only the local mayor (the officiant), and the couple's immediate family members present. They did however hold a larger celebration the next day in a local church although media access was still limited.

Clijsters and Lynch have three children together: Jada (born 2008), Jack (born 2013) and Blake (born 2016).

Answer: Preparing for an exhibition match

Clijsters was invited to participate in an exhibition tournament at Wimbledon in May 2009 to test the Centre Court's newly-installed retractable roof. In preparation for this, Clijsters told journalists that she went back to her training schedule from the days she played professionally and enjoyed it so much that she had "the hunger for more".

Despite how the media portrayed Clijsters' return, she stated that she saw it as a second career and not a "comeback" because, even though she'd be competing again on the professional tour, she didn't want her life to revolve around tennis.

Answer: U.S. Open

After finishing runner-up four times at Grand Slam major tournaments between 2001-2004, Kim finally overcame the final hurdle and won the U.S. Open for the first time in 2005. She then won the tournament again in 2009 and 2010, before winning the Australian Open (the other Grand Slam major tournament played on a hard court) in 2011. Kim's 2009 U.S. Open win was particularly impressive because it was only her third tournament back after returning to competitive play after her retirement May 2007!

Answer: False

Despite being eligible to play in the 2000 Sydney Olympics, Clijsters did not make herself available to be selected by her national team. Then for Athens 2004, she was injured but had also made it known that she couldn't compete because her contract with sports clothing company, Fila, forbade her from wearing her country's Adidas uniform. Clijsters had retired before the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Upon her return to the sport, Clijsters did compete in the women's singles draw at the 2012 London Olympics but lost in the quarterfinals to Russia's Maria Sharapova - one round before being in contention for any of the medals.

Answer: Serena Williams

Proving that she was confident and capable in the biggest and most high-profile matches, Kim held a winning head-to-head record on the professional tour against Justine Henin (13 wins to 12 losses), Lindsay Davenport (9-8), and Maria Sharapova (5-4). Serena Williams on the other hand won 7 of the 9 matches they played although that ninth and final match resulted in a win for Clijsters (2009 US Open).