After the innuendo and the f-words, here was the feel-good finish in New York City. In Belgium, they are calling her 'the Tennis Mama', and this was good, clean, family entertainment, with the Belgian defeating Caroline Wozniacki, of Denmark, to become the first mother to win a grand slam title for 29 years, the first since Australia's Evonne Goolagong was the 1980 Wimbledon champion. It was Clijsters' second slam title, after her victory here in 2005. She fell to her knees and the grand slam stage was hers again; well, it was until her 18-month-old daughter, Jada, joined her on court, and ended up upstaging her mother in front of the television cameras. Jada toddled past the photographers, she seemed to want to take the top off mum's silver trophy, and she kept pointing at the image of herself on the video screens inside the floodlit Arthur Ashe Stadium. Part of Clijsters' preparations for the final had included arranging Jada's 'nap time' so that her daughter would be able to watch her playing against the teenager. Some would suggest that Clijsters' victory did not say much for the talent in the women's game. How can it be possible to take more than two years off to start a family, and then, at only your third tournament back of your 'second career', win a slam? But no one should belittle Clijsters' accomplishment; anyone who beats both Williams sisters in the same slam deserves to end up with the title. Clijsters, who had not played at Flushing Meadows since winning the 2005 title, defeated Venus in the fourth round and then beat Serena in that semi-final that will always be remembered for the f-words and the foot-fault. Somehow, the former world No 1 almost seemed to be playing at a higher level than four years ago in New York. This was not a fluke for Clijsters, even if she had never imagined that a second grand slam win would come so quickly. It still seems so surreal that in my third tournament back I won my second grand slam. It wasn't in the plan to win here. Those who run the women's tennis tour will be pleased to have a decent storyline to promote the improbable tale of how Clijsters went away, started a family, came back to tennis and won a slam. It should be said that this victory would not have been possible without the retractable roof over Wimbledon's Centre Court. Clijsters has always said that it was only after receiving an invitation from the All England Club to play at an exhibition in May this year, as part of a test event for the 'indoor' conditions in Centre Court, that she realised that she missed the thrill of competing for grand-slam titles. I didn't get into the whole training routine until at the start of the year when I got the invitation to play at Wimbledon. It had been supposed that the US Open would be the last tournament that she would play this season, before deciding what her schedule should be for next year, but she has opted to compete at a small event in Luxembourg this autumn. And what of Wozniacki, a 19 year-old from Odense, the birthplace of Hans Christian Andersen? Until this US Open, the Dane had never gone beyond the fourth round of a slam. In her first slam final, Wozniacki came within two points of winning the opening set, when she was serving for it at 5-4, 30-15, only to then drop her serve to 30. On her next service game, she was broken again. Clijsters won the second set, but Wozniacki wasn't finished for the night, as she impressed during the prize-giving ceremonies by taking the microphone and thanking her supporters in English, Danish and then Polish. This was Clijsters' night, but Wozniacki had done enough to suggest that she is a possible grand slam champion of the future.
