Australian Open 2011: Kim Clijsters takes final battle in her stride

Kim Clijsters is deceptively homely, with a turned up nose and a smile borrowed from some 1950s American TV ad for washing powder. She talks like the suburban mum she is when not wired up to the international tennis circuit and has a perspective on her sport that is disconcertingly normal. She has retired once, to have a baby, and, at 27, she is about to do so again (retire, that is), at the end of this season. That is why she is not drowning in the hype that attends her eighth grand slam final and Li Na's first at the Australian Open today. If Li wins, we are led to believe Chinese tennis will emerge from its chrysalis and a grand new era of the women's game will be upon us before long. Li, who also has a sense of proportion, questions the impact victory would have on her homeland, mainly because of the suspicion with which her rise has been viewed since she threw off the constraints of the state system. When it comes down to it, this is a tennis match, albeit a grand one. "Aussie Kim" has always had a place reserved in local hearts and is annually repatriated, one benefit of her liaison years ago with Lleyton Hewitt. Li is their exotic new flower. Although she lives in New Jersey with her American basketballing husband and likes to shop "in Antwerp, New York and London", Clijsters remains determinedly Belgian. Asked about the global significance of today's match, she skips around the subject with all the polite neutrality she can muster. "I think it'll open a lot of doors for tennis in that part of the world," she said of the prospect of Li becoming the first Chinese player to win a grand slam, "but obviously I'm not Chinese, as you can see, probably. It's hard for me to comment, because I don't know much about the culture, how they look at sports, how they live." If this sound staggeringly disconnected for someone who uses aeroplanes like most people use buses, Clijsters means no offence. For all that she is a well-rounded homebody, the tennis circuit is still her bubble. What goes on outside her immediate experience remains peripheral to her working day – and China is not on her radar. Asked if the retirement this week of Justine Henin through injury preyed on her mind in her own comeback, Clijsters said: "I had injuries before, so I knew that could be part of the second career as well. It's not just all the beautiful things that I thought of when I started again. "I took it very slowly, to get back into shape after the pregnancy. There were some injuries here and there that you wish would not happen because they put you off schedule. "But injuries are possible with any athlete. Look at [Rafa] Nadal. It can happen with any athlete, even if they're 100% in shape. So it's just your mindset. "I know this is probably going to be my last full season on the tour, though, and then we'll see. It's nice that I'm in this spot, to play for the title. It's a great feeling to have, [especially] knowing that I'm not going to be able to come here for five more years." That has been the length of her commitment to the tournament, and she has profited from the investment with an audience that love her and a title she treasures. Clijsters gives the impression some times that it is just about the way it should be, no more, no less.