Kim Clijsters targets March return 7 years after retiring

FILE – In this Sept. 13, 2009, file photo, Kim Clijsters holds the trophy after winning the women’s championship over Caroline Wozniacki, at the U.S. Open tennis tournament in New York. Four-time Grand Slam champion Kim Clijsters is planning another comeback. A mother of three, the Belgian who retired after the 2012 U.S. Open wants a new challenge, she told the WTA in an interview on its website on Thursday, Sept. 12, 2019. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa, FIle)

BRUSSELS — Kim Clijsters plans to make her delayed comeback to tennis at the Monterrey Open in March, more than seven years after her second retirement.

Clijsters said on Monday she accepted wild cards into the Mexican hard-court event which begins on March 2, followed by Indian Wells from March 11, then the Charleston clay tournament from April 6.

The former No. 1 and four-time major champion, who already is a member of the International Tennis Hall of Fame, announced her comeback attempt in September. Her plans were delayed in November when she tore a ligament in her right knee.

“I am really pleased with my progress and it’s been great to get back on the court and play tennis again,” Clijsters said in a statement. “It’s been a setback but has really shown me how determined I am to return to the game I love.”

WTA rules allow her, as a past Grand Slam champion, to receive unlimited wild-card invitations to tournaments and, as someone who is older than 30, to opt out of mandatory appearances at certain events.

The 36-year-old Clijsters left the tour in 2007 and got married and had the first of her three children. She returned about two years later and won her second and third U.S. Opens and an Australian Open. She retired again in 2012 and was working in television.