Clijsters seeking a breakthrough
As for Clijsters, the match against Venus had to be the biggest match of her career. It's been said that Kim is the best player never to win a major, and she should take that as a major compliment -– it means that many believe that she has the ability to win Grand Slams.

This was the first three-set match Clijsters played all summer and while she looked down and out for the first set and a half, she found an inner reserve to deliver a stunning victory. The longer the match went on, the more I felt that the edge belonged to Clijsters because of her amazing fitness level. She does some intensive training and she has an incredible speed to cover the court -– all those factors worked amazingly well for her in the latter stages against Venus.

Venus, Serena now spectators
From 1997 to 2002, Venus had reached at least the semifinals here at the U.S. Open. But now with her loss, this year will mark the third consecutive U.S. Open where there isn’t a Williams sister in the final.

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For Clijsters, we now get to see if she can take the momentum from this win as well as from her excellent summer season and make it work for her. She’s been in four Grand-Slam finals, but has yet to take home a title. I can assure you that she really wants to win this Open, and she seems to have the attitude here this year that might help her to do it.

Clijsters actually agreed that this win to get into the U.S. Open semifinals was probably the biggest win of her life, and I anticipate she’ll be pumped up to try and continue her momentum against Maria Sharapova, her semifinal opponent on Friday. The good news for Clijsters is that she owns an impressive 3-0 record over Sharapova so the mental edge should be on her side.