Kim Clijsters says she is looking forward to some much-needed match practise after powering past Romania's Simona Halep in the first round of the Brisbane International.
Clijsters, who won the season-opening Brisbane tournament in 2010 in a classic final against Justine Henin, blasted through the first set then held off Halep in the second to win 6-1, 6-4.
The 28-year-old Belgian will be trying to defend her Australian Open crown later this month but concedes to being a bit rusty after missing the last seven months of 2011 with injury problems.
"It's important for me to get back into that kind of match rhythm," Clijsters said.
"I think it's difficult to get into that rhythm of playing matches a couple of days in a row.
"I would like to have that opportunity here. Obviously if not, it doesn't happen but it would be nice to achieve that."
Clijsters declared herself delighted with how she played against Halep, the world number 47, who reached the Australian Open third round last year.
"For a first match this was pretty good," she said.
"In the second set there were a few little errors that I need to focus on in my next match, but overall I had a good feeling, I felt that I was playing aggressively, so I was pretty happy with that."
In the women's draw, Australia's Casey Dellacqua made an exit in the first round, going down 6-4, 6-2 to Serbia's Bojana Jovanovski.
Czech Republic's Iveta Benesova defeated countrywoman Lucie Safarova 2-6, 7-5, 7-5 and third-seeded Italian Francesca Schiavone progressed to the second round after
Kazakhstan's Ksenia Pervak retired after just eight games with a headache.
The score was deadlocked at 4-4 when Pervak retired.
AFP
Tags: sport, tennis, brisbane-4000, qld, australia First posted January 01, 2012 18:27:28
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