MIAMI, 26 March 2005 — Former world No. 1 Kim Clijsters continued her resurgent comeback from injury by ripping past German qualifier Sandra Kloesel at the Nasdaq-100 Open on Thursday.
Clijsters, who won the Pacific Life Open last week in only her second tournament after missing most of the 2004 season with a wrist injury, eased to a 6-0, 6-1 first-round win.
“It wasn’t easy out there because conditions were very different to last week, so I’m very happy to have a short match,” the Belgian told reporters.
It took Kloesel 43 minutes to win a game but by then she was 6-0, 5-0 down and it proved to be little more than a consolation.
Clijsters, who next plays 24th-seeded American Amy Frazier, has now won 10 of the 11 matches she has played since returning to competition in Antwerp last month.
The Belgian’s sole defeat of the season was at the hands of Venus Williams in the Antwerp quarterfinals.
Ana Ivanovic of Serbia was among the day’s winners beating Laura Granville of the US 6-3, 7-5.
“I tried to stay positive when I was injured and kept my body fit,” said Clijsters. “Today the score was easy but I still feel that there is work to do.”
In the men’s event, American Mardy Fish was made to fight for his second-round berth by Tomas Zib.
Fish, who is based in Florida, beat the Czech 7-6, 6-7, 6-3 and will now play Germany’s Tommy Haas, seeded 16.
World No. 1 Roger Federer will take on Olivier Rochus in round two after the fleet-footed Belgian overcame Croatian giant Ivo Karlovic 5-7, 7-6, 7-6.
Rochus’s brother Christophe, however, lost 6-4, 6-2 to former Wimbledon and U.S. Open runner-up Mark Philippoussis.
The Australian’s victory was a measure of revenge after Rochus beat him in the second round of the Sunrise Challenger in Florida last week.
Philippoussis fell on hard times last year. He won only 11 matches to drop out of the world’s top 100 for only the second time in a decade
