In an interview with the Guardian, Kim Clijsters says that she believes she is spiritually connecting with her father. Clijsters father Lei, who helped coach her and frequently traveled with her, died in January 2009.
"If it happens once you can say it's a coincidence,” she said. "But when it keeps happening you start to feel it's something else. I get chills thinking about it. Me and Dad had this big thing about the number one. Sometimes at night I think of that because I wake up and look at my clock and it's 11 minutes past one: 1:11. This happened at the U.S. Open in 2009… I made it to the quarters against Venus Williams. In the last game I was down 15-40 [with Clijsters 5-4 up in the deciding set]. It was tough and I missed my first serve on the next point. Even though I never usually look at the speed of my serve, this time I did: 111. I might have been down two break points but it gave me such peace. I was like, 'Ah … OK.'"
The four-time Grand Slam champion also said that a few days later on the way to Flushing Meadows for her semifinal she was "anxious, a new mother out of the game for two and a half years and up against Serena Williams now. And Barry White came on the radio. My dad was a huge Barry White fan and this was the same song we had played at his funeral. I called my sister, Elke, in Belgium and said 'Listen …' I felt amazingly calm and of course I won the match and the tournament."
Defending Australian Open champion Clijsters added that on her birthdays her father used to send her bouquets of roses and on her birthday last summer, she was driving home with her husband Brian "around 11 at night. I was talking to my sister on the car phone and, as soon we finished, this song [Katie Melua] came on the radio [and] it was the other song we played at my dad's funeral. I looked at my husband and said, 'Here's my last birthday gift.' I started crying then."