Clijsters bests Li for Australian Open crown

She had already established herself as the queen of New York; now she can add Melbourne to her list of conquests. Kim Clijsters won her fourth Grand Slam title, and first away from the US Open, at the Australian Open, ending the historic run of China's Li Na in the final, 36 63 63.

Li, the No.9 seed, was the sharper of the two early, taking the first set on the strength of more aggressive numbers - 10 winners to just three for Clijsters. After a string of breaks to start the second set, Clijsters was the one who steadied herself, winning six straight games from 63 32 down to win the second set and build a 2-0 lead in the third set. Li was not to recover from that stretch.

"She did everything better than me in that first set," Clijsters told press. "Her groundstrokes were heavier, deeper. She served better, she returned better. She was playing really, really well - probably the best she's ever played againt me.

"I tried mixing it up, putting some slices in, hitting a few higher shots that drew some errors. I saw her get a little bit aggravated and I just tried to hang in there."

Clijsters praised the crowd in her on-court speech: "I finally feel like you guys can call me Aussie Kim, because I won the title. I've been coming here for many years and you guys have always been amazing. It helps so much."

"I take positives. I think I played great tennis. She played better than me," Li said. "After the match, when I was going back to the locker room, I made a joke that a tennis match should only be one set. I'm still happy what I did today.

"Right now I'll just take total rest, because Chinese New Year is coming soon. I'll take time with the family and prepare for the next tournament."

Clijsters' first three majors came at the US Open, in 2005, 2009 and 2010. She is now 4-4 in major finals, losing her first four and winning her last four.

Clijsters had lost to Li in the final of the lead-up event in Sydney, but that could have worked in her favor - the last player to win a title the week before a major then go on to win that major was all of seven years ago in 2004, when Justine Henin won Sydney and then won the Australian Open two weeks later.

Li was the first Asian ever to reach a Grand Slam final in singles, and will now bounce back into the world's Top 10 and to a new career-high, No.7. She will be Asia's second-highest ranked player ever, after Kimiko Date-Krumm of Japan (who went as high as No.4 in the world back in 1995, during her first career).

"It's so exciting I could be the first one," Li said of her breakthrough. "I want another trophy. I want my name there - just one more step. Maybe next time."

"I'd like to congratulate Li Na," Clijsters said. "She's such a tough competitor and she made such a great effort these last few weeks. I'm sure we'll have some tough battles coming up - a few more Grand Slam finals would be nice!"

Clijsters will rise from No.3 to No.2 on the new rankings, the highest ranking of her second career, since coming back to the WTA in two summers ago.

There has been talk about how much longer Clijsters will play, talk that got louder after the retirement of Henin, whose career was somewhat parallel.

"I do think this is probably my last full season," the 27-year-old Clijsters said. "When I started again, I had the Olympics in my mind. I wanted to try to keep going until then. I obviously never expected things to go so well so quickly."

Will she be back to defend Down Under? "Yeah, I hope so," she said.

2010 Grand Slam Champions

2010 Australian Open Champion

Serena Williams of The United States of America

2010 French Open Champion

Francesca Schiavone of Italy

2010 Wimbledon Championships Champion

Serena Williams of The United States of America

2010 US Open Champion

Kim Clijsters of Belgium

2010 Year-Ending Championships Champion

Kim Clijsters of Belgium

Clijsters wins Year-Ending Champonships against year-ending No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki

Kim Clijsters started strongly, lost her way a little and finished fast in the final of the WTA Championships - Doha 2010, scoring a 63 57 63 win over Caroline Wozniacki for her third career title at the season-ender.

Coming into this year's event, Clijsters was the only player in the field who had a winning record at the WTA Championships in previous years (she had been 15-6 here, with none of the other seven players better than even). She was also on a roll in big matches, winning all five finals since returning to tennis last year.

All of that may have played into a very fast start for Clijsters, who burst out to a 63 41 lead; Wozniacki, who had won more matches than anyone this year, did not surrender - in fact she raised her level in a big way, upping the aggression and winning seven of the next eight games to win the second set and break for 1-0 in the first game of the third. The match would turn once more, however.

Clijsters broke right back in the second game of the third set and was again the frontrunner from there, firing an inside out forehand winner to break again for 4-2, holding easily for 5-2 then holding again two games later to complete the victory.

"At the moment I'm kind of relieved it's over. It seemed like it would never end," Clijsters said. "It was a tough battle. We showed some great tennis and some great fitness - I think we showed the crowd some great women's tennis tonight. This was my first time in the Middle East and it was an amazing experience."

Having also won this event in 2002 and 2003, Clijsters is the fifth player in WTA history to win here three or more times (Martina Navratilova won the event eight times, Steffi Graf five, Chris Evert four and Monica Seles three).

Clijsters won her fifth WTA title of the year, following triumphs in Brisbane, Miami, Cincinnati and the US Open; the only player who won more titles than Clijsters this year was Wozniacki (the Dane won six titles this year).

Wozniacki has a lot to be happy about after this week, making it to one of her biggest career finals (last year's US Open final was arguably her only bigger final, and she fell to Clijsters there too) and, by virtue of beating Francesca Schiavone in round robin play, securing the year-end No.1 ranking - she rose to No.1 on October 11 and is the 10th player ever to finish a year No.1.

"This may be disappointing for Caroline, but she has a great future," Clijsters added. "I also have to congratulate her on making it to the No.1 ranking."

"I gave my all today. I couldn't have played better," a gracious Wozniacki said. "I haven't thought about the match yet, but I'm going to look back and learn from it for sure. I've still had a fantastic year, winning six tournaments and beating so many good players. Right now I'm going to enjoy my break. I'm going to have a few weeks off, then I'll start working hard again and be even better in January."

WTA Launches New Logo

The WTA, the world's leading global sport for women with a 37-year history, launched a new logo Sunday. The new mark is designed to serve as a distinctive and modern reminder of the captivating athleticism and excitement that has driven the international popularity and growth of women's pro tennis and placed it firmly at the nexus of sport and entertainment.

"For close to four decades the WTA brand has stood for premium athleticism and entertainment on a global stage," said Stacey Allaster, Chairman and CEO of the Women's Tennis Association. "The WTA identity unveiled today is intended to be a modernized presentation of our logo that is both functional and effective for our partners and members across all forms of media."

"I think that this is a very exciting time for the WTA with great new sponsors and now the very cool and fresh look and feel for women's tennis," said Caroline Wozniacki. "I'm so proud to be a part of this time for the sport and the players will definitely have a greater connection to the fans through the new brand."

To create its new logo, the WTA enlisted Chermayeff & Geismar, a leading global brand design firm behind many of the world's most recognizable trademarks including Chase, Mobil, NBC, PBS, Armani Exchange, National Geographic and Barney's New York, among others.

"By diverging from the expected approach of featuring an image of an athlete, we created a mark that is unusual in pro sports, and its appropriately bold identity will over time come to recall the incredible athletes that represent women's tennis," said Chermayeff & Geismar Partner and designer Tom Geismar.

The design of the new brand image departs from conventional sport logos by not featuring a figure of a female tennis player, but rather putting the emphasis on the letters W, T and A. The symbol also incorporates subtle references to the sport: the oval shape of the mark is a reference to both the imprint a tennis ball leaves on the court and to the shape of a racquet, while the yellow circle as the crossbar of the A recalls a tennis ball. The new core brand identity will be fully integrated throughout the WTA and women's tennis, including in TV graphics, print materials, tournament branding, advertising, promotion and digital and social media in all its forms throughout the 2011 season.

Earlier this year, Sony Ericsson, the WTA's title sponsor since 2005, renewed its landmark partnership with the sport in the role of lead global sponsor in lieu of title sponsor, providing women's tennis the opportunity to reestablish its core identity. During the course of 2010, the WTA has renewed both Sony Ericsson and Travelex and signed new partnerships with Oriflame, a Swedish cosmetics company and Peak, a Chinese apparel brand.