Kim Clijsters to continue comeback at Indian Wells

FILE – Belgium’s Kim Clijsters returns the ball to Spain’s Gabrine Muguruza during a match of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championship in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Monday, Feb. 17, 2020. (AP Photo/Kamran Jebreili)

Former world number one Kim Clijsters will continue her WTA comeback at Indian Wells in March after receiving a wild card Thursday into the elite hard court tournament in the California desert.

Belgium’s Clijsters, a four-time Grand Slam champion, had been out of the game for seven years before playing the first match of her return in Dubai, where she lost to Australian Open finalist Garbine Muguruza in the opening round.

She was scheduled to play in Monterrey, Mexico, before arriving at Indian Wells, where she won the title in 2003 and 2005.

Clijsters last played Indian Wells in 2011.

Clijsters, 36, is embarking on her second comeback. She retired in 2007 to marry and have her first child, returning in 2009 and going on to win three of her four Grand Slam titles.

She retired again after the 2012 US Open, but said in Dubai that she had felt “for a little while” that she might like to launch another comeback.

“Once in a while that feeling would go away when I was home with the (three) kids,” she said. “A couple times it would come back. It got stronger and stronger.”

Eventually, Clijsters said, her husband counseled her to go for it.

“He was like, ‘Stop worrying about why and ask yourself why not,'” she said.