Clijsters' career over after surprise loss to Robson in New York

15:19, 30 August 2012

NEW YORK. August 30. KAZINFORM Kim Clijsters' glittering career came to a surprise end on Wednesday, as Britain's Laura Robson recorded a shock 7-6, 7-6 win over the Belgian, who had already announced her retirement after this year's U.S. Open, CNN reported.

Robson, who recently won silver in the mixed doubles at the London Olympics, is currently ranked 89th in the world and wasn't expected to pose much of a challenge to the three time U.S. Open champion, but the Belgian struggled to find an answer to Robson's impressive serve.

To put Clijsters' success in New York in perspective, Robson was only nine years old when the Belgian last lost a match at the tournament. Clijsters has 41 tour titles to her name, behind only the Williams sisters among still active players, while Robson has yet to claim her first tournament victory.

Robson will now face ninth seeded Na Li in the second round.

Top seed Victoria Azarenka breezed through her second round match against Kirsten Flipkens, taking only 27 minutes to record a 6-2, 6-2 victory.

Azarenka, the reigning Australian Open champion, certainly sent out a message to her rivals with a dominant display that totally overawed 26-year-old Flipkens.

"I think it was another good performance today," Azarenka explained, in quotes carried on the U.S. Open website.

"I think that Grand Slams are the toughest ones to play for sure," she added.

"It wasn't as easy maybe as the score was, but I think I played well. I always take it match by match no matter where it is, whatever my ranking is. I have been doing it for pretty much my whole career."

Azarenka will meet Chinese 28th seed Jie Zheng, and will be hopeful of progressing to the U.S. Open fourth round for the first time since 2007.

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