Kim Clijsters' white sneakers squealed as she stopped, set her feet, and blasted a backhand winner with such conviction that the ball bounded off the back wall with a deep thud. Watching the defending Australian Open champion rip winners almost at will was a bit like listening to a soprano with three-octave range competing in a club karaoke contest—Clijsters hit all the right notes in tuning up Stephanie Foretz Gacon, 6-0, 6-1, to roar into the third round of the Australian Open.
Sprinigng off her toes as if bouncing to a beat in her head, Clijsters was quick off the mark and looked much sharper than she did in her in her 7-5, 6-1 opening-round win. It was Clijsters' 40th career Australian Open victory, and she celebrated by leading the Rod Laver Arena crowd in a post-match chorus of "Happy Birthday" in tribute to her younger sister, Elke.
The 107th-ranked Foretz Gacon was making her first Australian Open main-draw appearance in five years. The 30-year-old Frenchwoman, who sports tinted oval glasses and spends most of her time playing ITF events, has been around so long that she first faced Clijsters a decade ago in Miami. Working through a deuce hold in the opening game, Clijsters quickly put distance between herself and her opponent, pounding combinations into the corners that reduced Foretz Gacon to the role of retriever. The 1999 Roland Garros junior runner-up is a fit and quick counter-puncher, but many of her shots were struck on the run and she couldn't consistently find the necessary depth to keep Clijsters from stepping inside the baseline and blasting away.
The 11th-seeded Belgian hit nine winners compared to one for her opponent and broke serve three times in a 22-minute first set. Foretz Gacon wore the futile expression of a woman who had nowhere to go with the ball. She might have been better served trying to take some pace off and loop some higher balls to buy some time, but Clijsters was so thoroughly oppressive she had the final word in most baseline exchanges.
Foretz Gacon gained her lone game by holding at 30 for 1-1 in the second set, before Clijsters cruised through the final five games to close a dominating display in just 47 minutes. She has won 17 of her last 18 Grand Slam matches and will face a familiar face—20th-seeded Daniela Hantuchova—for a place in the round of 16. Clijsters retired from her Brisbane semifinal against Hantuchova two weeks ago due to a left hip injury. The pair will renew a rivalry that dates back to their junior days.
"It will be a tough, tough match; Daniela has been playing some really good tennis," Clijsters said. "We grew up playing the under 14s together and we joked about it now look at us still playing at almost 30."
Should Clijsters, who is 9-1 lifetime vs. Hantuchova, advance, she could play Li Na in a rematch of the 2011 Australian Open final that could give fans something else to sing about.
—Richard Pagliaro