Kim Clijsters loves having Australian fans on her side but is more than happy to abdicate her moniker as “Aussie Kim” and pass the baton to new honorary Australian Ana Ivanovic.
The popular Belgian, previously engaged to Lleyton Hewitt, is relieved to know Ivanovic will be known as “Aussie Ana” this summer due to her romance with golfer Adam Scott.
Scott was on hand at the Brisbane International on Saturday as Ivanovic practised on Pat Rafter Arena, catching Clijsters eye who hit centre court after her.
While both Ivanovic [Jelena Dokic] and fellow comeback queen Justine Henin [Nadia Petrova] drew tough first-round opponents, Clijsters will play unseeded Italian Tathiana Garbin on Sunday.
Clijsters predicted both Ivanovic and Henin would be genuine contenders for this month’s Australian Open and was quietly pleased they were drawn on the other half of the draw.
But the 26 year old, married to American basketballer Brian Lynch, seemed just as happy to know the glamorous Serb is willing to embrace the Aussie nickname.
“For sure, that’s fine,” she said. “That’s a good one, I’ll tell her that in the locker room.
“I saw Ana Ivanovic train earlier and she really looks like she’s trained really hard.”
Clijsters also looks to have prepared well, mixing her time on court with taking her daughter Jada for swims at Brisbane’s “lagoon” beach at South Bank.
A 2004 finalist at Melbourne Park when she lost a three-setter to Henin, the Belgian is hoping to repeat her US Open success for another Grand Slam this month.
She has a 10-12 career record against her compatriot and expects Henin will be capable of emulating her own efforts of winning a Grand Slam as an unranked wildcard in her third tournament back from premature retirement.
“Obviously Justine is right up there,” Clijsters said.
“Knowing her from the past I assume she’s been training really hard to be back where she was a few years ago and her attitude, she’s always been a really professional athlete and that does not change.”
Clijsters hasn’t put a ranking ambition on 2010, preferring to target Grand Slam events in a scaled down schedule of 14 tournaments.
“Now that I’m a little bit older and hopefully wiser I think that I’ve created a schedule for myself that I can aim for the big tournaments, and all the tournaments that I’m playing at the moment,” she said.
“The Australian Open has always been the tournament I love playing and if I could do well and win it one day it would be great.
“Physically I feel really good, which is something that’s a big difference to a few years ago when I always seemed to have a little injury going on or a big one.”