After a patchy start, Kim Clijsters cruised to victory Wednesday defeating Jarmilla Gajdasova 46, 61, 60 in the first round in Miami.

Clijsters was playing in her first match since the Australian Open where she injured her left ankle two months ago. “I was home rehabbing my ankle and had really good practice schedule, physical schedule, but it’s just a matter of getting those matches,” she said. “I have to put a lot of work into just making [the anke] strong and feeling comfortable moving wise.
I’m still playing with the tape, but it feels I can move freely without anything to worry about. So that’s good.”

Clijsters had said she planned to retire after the 2012 summer Olympics in London, but after the win today that’s no longer the case.

“I do plan on trying to play a full schedule this year,” Clijsters said. “If my ranking goes high again I have a chance of making it into the top eight it might be nice to end at the Championships.

“The Olympics is what I’m focused on now, and where I kinda said, Okay, this is the long term goal that I set when I started playing again,” she added. “But that doesn’t mean that I’m not going to play the US Open or anything. The US Open is a special place for me so I would definitely like to play there, as well.”

Clijsters now faces an even tougher test Thursday against the 14th-seeded Julia Goerges.

Filed under: Miami
Tags: Kim Clijsters