Two-time champion Kim Clijsters Receives BNP Paribas Open Wild Card

Former World No. 1 Kim Clijsters, of Belgium, has received a wild card into the BNP Paribas Open, where she is a two time former champion. The tournament will be held at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden from March 9 to March 22. Clijsters will continue her comeback which began at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships - her first tournament in more than seven years. 

This will be the third tournament of her comeback and it will be the first time that she is playing in Indian Wells since 2011 - she was a champion here in 2003 and 2005. She will also play the WTA event in Monterrey before heading to Indian Wells. In her first tournament back, Clijsters lost to Australian Open finalist Garbine Muguruza 2-6, 6-7 and impressed many with her level of play, especially in the second set.

Clijsters is a four-time Grand Slam champion and was No. 1 in the world for 19 weeks before she retired for the first time in 2007 to start a family. After having her first child, she returned to the tour in 2009 and won the US Open in 2009 and 2010 and the Australian Open in 2011 and became World No. 1 again - before retiring for the second time in 2012.

The organizers will announce the remaining wild cards for singles & doubles in the coming weeks for the women's event.

The Indian Wells is one of the top events on the women's circuit after the four Grand Slams and the season-ending WTA Finals. As per a press release from the tournament last month, all the Top 75 ranked women on the WTA Tour had entered the event.

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/3afA240