It is July 2008. Five months have passed since Kim Clijsters gave birth to her first child, and the Belgian is back on the tennis court for the first time.
Movements which were once as natural as flying is to a bird are now off limits. There will be no lunging towards tramlines, or stretching every sinew to serve at speed. The grand slam champion has to
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She attempts to hit the ball in quick succession, but her heart rate bursts to 180 beats per minute. A no-go zone for the new mum. A gentle two-shot rally with her coach is her maximum.
Clijsters' return to professional tennis will be measured, calculated. Progress will be made at a crawl.
For a 27-year-old woman who has already been world No.1, life will, sometimes, be frustrating, but there is no fast-track to sporting success, even for a talent such as Clijsters.
It will be another seven months before she is ready to
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One of the greatest athletes of her generation is expecting her first child and fresh challenges, a new perspective, are before her.
Williams has said she will make her tennis comeback next year, but will a 35-year-old who has won it all really return to the sport in which she made her name?
Wim Fissette, Clijsters' former coach, believes we have seen the last of Williams at grand slams, dazzling with her flawless serve, overpowering opponents with her destructive groundstrokes.
Having won one major title and been retired for two years, Clijsters felt she still had something to prove, as does two-time grand slam champion Victoria Azarenka, another of Fissette's former charges who, aged 27, will make her
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"What I found the most important with both players was that they still had a lot they wanted to, and believe they could, achieve," Fissette -- Clijsters' coach when the Belgian won three grand slams during her comeback from pregnancy -- told CNN Sport.
"They had big dreams and big goals and they used that motivation from the moment they were pregnant, to stay fit and start training quite shortly after giving birth.
"With the right motivation, anything is possible.
"Science is at a point where you can be very fit at 37 or 38. If she has that goal to come back next year she will be fine but, personally, I don't see her coming back.
"She's achieved everything. She's the best tennis player of all time, who will be 36 in September and is about to have a baby.
"She will realize, when she gives birth, that being a mum will be
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Fissette points to Williams' past struggles with motivation to support his argument.
Until Williams partnered with the tennis coach Patrick Mouratoglou nearly five years ago, the now 23-time grand slam champion seemed, for a period, to lack hunger. She had been competing less and less, grand slam success was no longer a given.
The Frenchman shifted her focus onto records, onto building a legacy, and Williams began collecting majors again with renewed vigor.
