NEW YORK (Reuters) – Three-times champion Kim Clijsters fell at the first hurdle in her second comeback at the U.S. Open when Russian Ekaterina Alexandrova rallied for a 3-6 7-5 6-1 victory to reach the second round on Tuesday.
Clijsters made a blistering start to her first singles match at Flushing Meadows for eight years and left the 21st seed shaking her head in disbelief when she took the opening set in little more than half an hour.
Alexandrova regained her composure to level up the contest in a hard-fought second stanza, however, and raced away with the third as 37-year-old mother of three Clijsters tired on a cool evening on Court 17.
Clijsters, who won two of her U.S. Open titles after her first comeback, missed last week’s Western & Southern with an abdominal injury and is still without a win since coming out of retirement for the second time in February.
(Reporting by Nick Mulvenney in Sydney; Editing by)
