KIM CLIJSTERS PREVIEWS THE US OPEN

What are your expectations for the women’s tournament?
It's always a very interesting period to see how the players take on coming from the grass court season, where you're on a surface not the longest amount of time, but there's still a lot of players in the middle of the season who like to take a break.

So it's always interesting to see which players have actually taken that break - kind of look refreshed, which players are starting to feel a little bit more drained towards the last Grand Slam of the year. There's always some little signs that you can tell players are having some more injuries here and there, because it's getting later towards the season.

There's definitely a few players that I have my eye on and have had my eye on for probably the whole year. But everybody's interested to see how Emma [Raducanu] is going to do this year. That's going to be interesting because she didn't win a lot of matches in the lead up last year, but then qualified and ended up winning the tournament. So that's going to be interesting to see how she's doing. She did pretty, pretty good.

Iga Swiatek is always a person to keep your eye on. Coco Gauff - I am very, very much looking forward to watching her play. I feel like the maturity that she's gradually been getting into her tennis is to me almost the natural way to go and to be ready to win a slam. So if I have to pick somebody who has a really good shot, I think it's gonna be Coco Gauff this year.

Everybody’s talking about Serena in the US because maybe she will play her last tournament? We don't know. Can you tell me a little bit about the impact she has had on women's tennis?
Her impact on women's tennis, and I think on tennis in general. I think especially her impact in the States now that I live here. It's funny because there's people in my community - my daughter plays basketball - there's not that many people that ask me a lot about tennis or anything, but then when Serena announced that she was going to play her last US Open - all of a sudden, it was like, “Oh, can you help us, when is she playing, when is her first round going to be, we're going to try to get ticket.”

So her impact, just in general, for women in the States is incredible. It's been incredible. It's worldwide, but here, especially now that I live here, you get a better feel for it.

For her to be able to share her struggles, not just the struggles on court, but everything off court as well has been huge. She's a role model in that sense that she shares the struggles that she's had. But for me personally, I think it was in 1999 that I played her the first time and so it's amazing to have been on tour with her for that long, and to see all the records that she's broken and see her win slam after slam.

To do it with her sister in doubles a lot as well. It's been amazing to watch as Venus and Serena made girls like Justine and myself go back to the gym. We had to be stronger because we have to be able [to compete]. They were so athletic. They hit the ball but they were able to move from side to side and come up with incredible shots when they were on the run. So the level was raised because of them. The intensity was raised because of them.

We learned when we're standing in front of them on the court. Every serve that I hit, I'm going to have to really go for it. I have to pick my spots, the intensity just became higher. I think for many years we had great battles and enjoyed them very much. I lost most of them. But there were a couple here and there that I was able to win. It's been an honour to be a part of that, especially now that I'm older and I'm out of it, to see her still be on tour and to battle and the emotions that she has and the fight that she still has. It's fun to watch. She will have plenty of things to do when the sport is over. But the most important is the family life, I guess.

You’ve played nine matches against Serena. Can you describe what it’s like to play against her?
You know every shot that you hit, you have to be there. Like you can't just lose your mind for a few games because she takes over right away. I feel like even though when she wasn't playing her best tennis or if she got a little annoyed or something, she is so good at just turning that switch.

That's something that I realised like, “Okay, you have to be there from the start.” Whether I started serving or returning, I have to be on point and I have to be ready.

It's not like there's some players where you can say like, “Okay, let me work my way into the match a little bit, read my opponent.” That was never the case with Serena. You had to be ready, like sharp with your vision to be ready to attack her, like when she's serving to return - everything. You have to stay on top and then hopefully there were times where you hope that you can kind of even break her a little bit. She's making some unforced errors and that's when you had to take over. That was always kind of my mindset to just stay very, very focused and keep the focus that you lose to the smallest minimum.

What are Simona Halep's chances of winning a first US Open this year?
I think any tournament that she enters she has a chance to win because she has everything that you need to be able to win a tournament and if she's healthy, I think she's capable of making it really, really hard for a lot of players. 

She has the experience of winning a grand slam and so she definitely has the ingredients to be able to do that. She's played some good matches. She’s had some losses leading up to the to the US Open but she's played some good matches that I watched her play and where I feel like she's pushing herself to be a little bit more aggressive at times and to try to take a little bit more risks here and there.

She’s maybe together with Swiatek, the best mover on the tour. She has the best motor. She can run. She can play five hours if you let her so of course she can win.

But I think at times if she plays a player who is on and is the hard hitter, that sometimes I think causes her some problems. Everything depends on the draw, everything depends on the day but I definitely think she's capable of doing it. She can beat anybody that's in the draw.

Have you noticed something different to after starting her (Halep’s) collaboration with Patrick Mouratoglou?
I knew Darren pretty well to when she worked with Darren. Patrick is a different type of coach and Patrick is very intense. He's very involved. So there's definitely a different feel - maybe a little bit the intensity level or so. But I'm not around enough to know dynamics so I don't know any anything about that. I just know that Patrick - the way he coaches - he's very, very intense.

Kim Clijsters will be working as an expert for Warner Bros. Discovery's coverage of the US Open, which starts on Monday 29 August. Watch the US Open LIVE across Europe (ex UK&Ire) on discovery+, Eurosport and Eurosport App.