Clijsters: 'Serena knows what she has to do to get back to her best level'

LONDON, Great Britain - Kim Clijsters is a mother-of-three now - but arguably, she is also the mother of the current wave of players returning to the professional sport after giving birth.

Having retired for the first time at the age of 24, the Belgian's comeback two years later with daughter Jada in tow has recalibrated assumptions about what players can achieve following maternity leave. Clijsters would win the 2009 US Open in just her third tournament back, and go on to win another two major titles and return to the World No.1 ranking in 2011.

In the decade prior to Clijsters' return, two mothers had attained Tour success - Rossana de los Ríos, who reached the fourth round of Roland Garros in 2000 and a career high of World No.51 a year later, and Sybille Bammer, who cracked the Top 20 in 2007 and made the US Open quarterfinals the following year. But no one had returned to the very highest echelon of the sport since Evonne Goolagong Cawley and Margaret Court in the '70s - a very different era in terms of athleticism.

Following Clijsters' comeback, there has been a wave of players returning after giving birth - six of whom competed in this year's Wimbledon main draw, and two of whom, Serena Williams and Evgeniya Rodina, square off for a quarterfinal berth today.

Now a mother of three - sons Jake and Blake have joined Jada - Clijsters is a strong proponent of following instincts, which is what she did when she retired for the first time. In a new interview with Reuters, the 35-year-old says: "If I had listened to a lot of people, they were telling me it was too soon. But to me it felt right. Like it felt right to me to come back... If there is a player who is 26 and (they) have a very strong motherly instinct... it's going to be hard to be fully dedicated to your sport."

Emphasizing that those instincts will be different for every woman, Clijsters also says that for this reason, only Serena will truly know what will be best for her comeback. "Serena knows what she has to do to get back to her best level. Nobody else knows. Not even [her coach] Patrick [Mouratoglou]," she told Reuters.

"Patrick knows what she has to do to be the best tennis player, her fitness coach knows what she needs to do to get back into the shape she was in before she had her baby. But only Serena knows all the details. The mental side of things, nobody can get into your head. That's only her. She's so strong to do all those things, but it takes time."