Clijsters has just made a shock retirement announcement on Belgian TV apparently :o

Hold the celebrations dl ;)

Really? :o

I just heard it too, its horrible.

I think she'll make a comeback in 4 years and then win a slam, when she finds out Justine is preggers. :D

I know, amazing, two of the best players in recent years gone within 6 months of each other :(

Still no link, but apparently it's on her website too :shrug:

Chairman roflmao

Im sad as I wanted her to play the sisters one last time at Wimbledon :(

I was hopeing for one last hurrah but never mind :(

it was her farewell season and she was knocked out in Poland.

Perhaps she's just lost the will to compete :shrug:

Well I think it's a smart decision, maybe she should have waited until Wimbledon so she could go out at a Slam, but she'd clearly lost the will, after that semi in Australia I knew she was done :shrug:

Who else has retired?????

true, it would have been pretty poor to have gone out in the first round at Wimbers. Quit whilst you're on top ey?

'tis still a pity though :huh:

Err, Lindsay :lol:

I know, who can we bash now :angry: roflmao

a certain preggiport ;)

Has she retired permanently or will she come back when the sprog is out of nappies?

Davenport has not retired, she'll be bringing her babies on court while she wins wimbers 08.

Well apparently chairman knows something I don't :o roflmao

But as far as I can tell she's finished, but would be nice if she came back, with baby in tow :lol:

:bow: :ok:

bring your own ballboy or girl

:)

Well Margaret Court cameback twice after having children so you never know :D

But the fact that Lindsay said she's 100% retired was a bit of a hint ;) :lol:

O yeah :( :doh:

But I'm refusing to believe :D it was the hormones ;) roflmao

:) .. hmm Lindsay coming back ...no way..... but I can see Mini Kim in the stands while Clijsters plays..... But I think Kim will not be back either.... :)

Well you never do know, how many times has Lindsay said she's going to retire in her career :lol:

She'd still be out there now if she wasn't pregnant I bet roflmao

Yeah, and I bet she'd have Tokyo, IW, AI and Charleston titles under her belt had she kept going :angry:

She was such a good player but never seemed a GS threat for the title despite her US Open. I wish her luck.

Kim had a great career, but she'll always rue not achieving more GS wise...........

Wish you the best KIm :ok:

dunno, look at Sam and SF

roflmao

Dont we know it roflmao

More comebacks than Lindsay at wimbledon( she said she was retiring at least 3 wimby's roflmao )

disappointing, but all the best to mrs. lynch in the future :D

:o

All the best, Kim :)

She retired mentally after Antwerp, so I can't say I'm too surprised to see her end the farewell season prematurely...and it prevents more probably early losses at her other scheduled tournaments.

Course she would roflmao :bs: :rolleyes:

but i wanted clijsters to partner hingis in doubles at wimbledon :angry: :rolleyes: :( :o

Cany anyone who's good at rankings work out when she will drop out of 10. I think she has GS Semis at W and RG.

Hingis no 5 with Kuznetsova lots to defend at RG! ARGHH.

Hope WS take advantage of this spare place up there.

Not too surprised to be honest. It seemed pretty pointless competing when you know it means nothing. Shame to go out with such a whimper, and so young too, really bizarre.

It's a relief for all concerned, I think. None of us wants to see Clijsters show up just to halfheartedly lose to qualifiers in Eastbourne, Wimbledon and Stuttgart.

She had a few decent last shouts, with a title in Sydney and an AO semi, both results in Oz where she remained much appreciated, and she reached the final in Antwerp to give Mauresmo a fight for her diamond racket and say goodbye to the home fans. Now we can all look forward to having someone else take her Top 10 spot and she can look forward to domestic bliss. I've always admired her style of play when it was on song, but I think Jankovic has luckily taken the torch in the stretch volley and splits department. B)

To answer the question above, after some quick maths it looks as though she won't actually drop out of the Top 10 until Wimbledon is past. Pretty remarkable actually, but then she has three Slam SFs to her credit.

she could just ask for her name to be removed, couldn't she?? you shouldn't have to slide out of the rankings.

Tell that to Ms Davenport, currently occupying the No 63 spot. If there were a mechanism for such I'm sure she would have done so by now, even given her tetchy relationship with the WTA. B)

You can request your name to be removed from the rankings.

Graf did when she retired in 1999.

Davenport may not have felt the need to bother since she was ranked outside the top 10 at the time. Also there was a gap between her announcing her pregnancy & her actual retirement so at first she may not have wanted to be removed and then after she probably just didn't care.

Clijsters will be out of the top 10 straight Wimbledon at the latest. Maybe even before since she's dropping around 550 points over the clay season and won't be benefitting from the big increase in rankings points they have introduced this year (slam wins now worth 1000 rather than 700 points etc) so depending on results she could be out after RG.

Some nice words from Justine

Her Belgian rival Justine Henin said she had "a lot of respect" for Clijsters' achievements in her career.

"We've almost grown up together and I think we've helped each other to reach another level because we've pushed each other always to play better," said the world number one.

"She did a lot for the game, for Belgian tennis for sure, and I think I will have great memories of her."

I'll miss Kim and wish she could have retired after losing a better match but I guess as she said she had lost motivation to play after Antwerp so could have ended on a worse lost. I wish her all the best in the future as she was such a great ambassador for the sport :)