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By Lauren Lynch
© Mark Peterson/Corleve

(February 11, 2011) 27-year-old Kim Clijsters is officially the World No. 1 starting on Sunday, February 13. She stood up to the spot when she beat Jelena Dokic, 6-3, 6-0, at the Open Gaz de France quarterfinals in Paris.

After successfully winning the US Open and Australian Open, she will be taking the spot from Caroline Wozniacki and this is not her first time on the top. She was no. 1 almost nine years ago, 256 weeks ago which is the second-longest period of time behind Serena Williams. The last time she was no.1 was August 11, 2003 and between that time she took a five year retirement.

To the Paris crowd, Clijsters said, "I'm really happy to become the new world number one here. It's not Belgium but it's pretty close. The last time I became world number one was in Los Angeles, so it's good to do it here in Europe."

She will play either third seed Kaia Kanepi or eighth seed Dominika Cibulkova for the semifinals. She could potentially play World no. 48 American Bethanie Mattek-Sands, after she upset sixth seed Andrea Petkovic, or 2010 New Comer of the Year Petra Kvitova.

Mattek-Sands said what every tennis fan is thinking, "To have Kim come back, win two Slams in a row now, I think she’s definitely deserving of it."

Clijsters said 2011 will be her final full season. "I do think this is probably my last full season that I'll be playing. I also would like to try and keep going until the Olympics," Clijsters said. "I've never played the Olympics, which is in a year and a half time, or a little under a year and a half. Yeah, so and then we'll see after that."

 

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