NEW YORK(AP) Kim Clijsters missed her grandfather's 80th birthday party.
She doesn't remember which tournament it was - five years ago, probably the French Open or Wimbledon. Back then, she was a young player chasing Grand Slam titles and the world's No. 1 ranking.
Clijsters was again atop her sport Monday just three tournaments into her return from 2 1/2 years of retirement. She won the U.S. Open the night before, then re-entered the WTA rankings at No. 19.
But now no major, no number comes before her family.
``Little things like that are very special, because you never know how many more of those years you're going to have,'' Clijsters said.
So she's headed home to Belgium, not planning to play again for more than a month. Her sister is due to give birth in a couple of weeks.
It's nice to now be able to make my own schedule, to say, 'Look, this is something that's really important to me and I want to be there for that,''' Clijsters said.I don't want to miss it.
``That's a nice feeling to have that I can choose.''
Her grandparents are still alive and well, neighbors to Clijsters, husband Brian Lynch and 18-month-old daughter Jada. But Clijsters knows just how fragile life is after her father died in January.
She typically gets up each morning around 7 a.m. to make sure breakfast and Jada's bottle are ready before her daughter wakes up. Then Clijsters often trains for a couple of hours in the morning, returning in time to make lunch. During Jada's afternoon nap, she may do stretching or other exercises.
Obviously in Belgium things are going to be a lot more hectic now again for me when I get back home,'' Clijsters said a day after winning her second Grand Slam title.I just want to make sure it doesn't influence Jada too much, that she still has that normal life.''
Clijsters is scheduled to compete in Luxembourg starting Oct. 19 but has yet to set her plans beyond that. All she knows is she'll play the majors and other top tournaments in 2010.
In the past, Clijsters would enter several clay-court warmups before the French Open to try to become more comfortable on the service. She probably won't do that anymore - she just doesn't like playing on clay.
And she's not concerned about improving her ranking.
Maybe in the past you would kind of push yourself a little bit more in those kinds of situations,'' Clijsters said.That's not something I'm going to do. I've been through a lot of those situations and now I'm not going to say, 'Oh, I want to be top 10 by the end of the year.' I can go to Asia and play all those (fall) tournaments, but I'm not.''
Clijsters retired because her motivation was sapped. Worn down by injuries and yearning to start a family, she wasn't dedicating herself in practice the way she needed to.
Now 26, she believes she's found the right balance - and is making the tennis part, at least, look easy. Serena Williams, one of the five top-20 players defeated by Clijsters during her Open run, called it ``one of the greatest comebacks ever.''
First you need to be happy,'' Clijsters said.As a mother now, everything around me needs to be happy before I can go out there and play good tennis and be relaxed on the court. ... If all those things fall into place, then the results will follow automatically.
``That's what happened here. It's nice to experience tennis in that kind of way.''