NEW YORK - For all Kim Clijsters cared, they could have ripped the cheques up right in front of her.
The Belgian had eyes for only one thing after beating France's Mary Pierce 6-3, 6-1 in the US Open final yesterday - her first, gleaming Grand Slam tennis trophy.
Clijsters
had finally shed the tag of being the best player not to have won a Grand Slam and earned herself US$2.2 million ($3.15 million), the largest winner's prize in the history of women's sport.
"It's an amazing feeling to have, I find it very hard to believe," she gulped under the twinkling lights on Arthur Ashe Court, her face pink with the exertion of victory despite the scant resistance put up by her opponent.
The 22-year-old fourth seed claimed victory with a heavy serve on her second match point and dropped her racket as if in shock.
Then she sprinted across court to embark on a precarious climb up the courtside seating rails to the box where her mother Els and her other supporters stood shiny-eyed and cheering.
Clijsters' win was a glorious vindication of her positive attitude despite having lost in four Grand Slam finals and having missed most of 2004 with a chronic wrist problem that at one stage threatened to end her career.
Pierce was never in the match from the moment she lost serve in the opening game of the first set.
She was, however, dignified in defeat, in contrast to her 6-1, 6-1 humiliation by another Belgian, Justine Henin-Hardenne, in June's French Open final, which she finished an apologetic, emotional wreck.
"Kim, congratulations, I'm so happy for you," said the 30-year-old, France's first US Open finalist.
The careers of Pierce and Clijsters have plenty in common. Both enjoyed great success early on before being badly disrupted by injuries.
In other ways, however, they could hardly be more different.
Where Clijsters radiates a natural urgency, bustling around the court with a bright-eyed relish for her work, Pierce can give the impression she is playing through treacle, an infuriating mix of heaving sighs, pregnant pauses and nervous ticks.
Despite her reputation for mental frailty, Pierce won the Australian Open in 1995 and the French Open in 2000, reaching a high of number three in the rankings before being hobbled by ankle and back trouble in 2001.
This year, though, she reached the Roland Garros final again and the last eight at Wimbledon to signal a resurgence that will bring her back into the top 10 next week.
Clijsters attained the No 1 ranking in 2003 but showed a flaw in her mental make-up by losing in the finals of the French Open in 2001 and 2003, the US Open in 2003 and the Australian Open in 2004.
Her wrist injury, which required surgery, ruined 2004 for Clijsters but she returned with aplomb this year, winning six titles coming into New York, despite some ankle problems.
The latter issue has not prevented the Belgian sliding claycourt-style, legs akimbo on the Flushing Meadows hardcourts and she was immediately into her considerable stride yesterday.
Her immediate break of serve soon became a 3-1 lead and Pierce, moving as if in slow motion most of the time with her right thigh heavily strapped, looked half asleep.
She recovered briefly to 4-3 but the errors continued to flow and Clijsters took the first set when another Pierce backhand flew long.
At that point she risked the wrath of a generally patient US crowd by calling the trainer on court, as she had done so controversially after losing the first set of her semifinal against Russian Elena Dementieva.
It appeared the 12th seed needed to adjust the strapping on her thigh but, almost farcically, she suddenly ran off to the dressing-room.
Pierce ran back just in time to resume after the changeover. Looking flustered, though, she initially made for the wrong end of the court before realising her mistake.
Against Dementieva, she followed a 12-minute medical timeout by turning the match on its head, to the intense irritation of the Russian. Clijsters was determined there would be no repeat.
The Belgian won the next three games for the loss of only one point and the final was over as a contest.
* New Zealander Marina Erakovic's run in the US Open junior tennis championships ended in disappointment. Facing the top seed, her doubles partner Victoria Azarenka of Belarus, in the quarter-finals, Erakovic was forced to withdraw from her match in the first set trailing 2-5 due to a back injury.
The sixth-seeded Erakovic, 17, is still eligible to compete in the juniors next year but has stated that her next aim is to get her WTA senior ranking from 235 to inside the top 200.
US Open women's singles champions
2005 Kim Clijsters (Belgium)
2004 Svetlana Kuznetsova (Russia)
2003 Justine Henin-Hardenne (Belg)
2002 Serena Williams (US)
2001 Venus Williams (US)
2000 Venus Williams
1999 Serena Williams
1998 Lindsay Davenport (US)
1997 Martina Hingis (Switzerland)
1996 Steffi Graf (Germany)
1995 Steffi Graf
1985 Hana Mandlikova (Czech)
1975 Chris Evert (US)
1965 Margaret Smith Court (Aust)
1955 Doris Hart (US)
- REUTERS, NZPA
Kim Clijsters of Belgium kisses the championship trophy to celebrate her win over Mary Pierce of France at the US Open tennis tournament. Picture / Reuters
NEW YORK - For all Kim Clijsters cared, they could have ripped the cheques up right in front of her.
The Belgian had eyes for only one thing after beating France's Mary Pierce 6-3, 6-1 in the US Open final yesterday - her first, gleaming Grand Slam tennis trophy.
Clijsters
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