By Etienne Stekelenburg
September 8 2003

Kim Clijsters never reached her playing level she showed throughout the tournament and Justine Henin-Hardenne took full advantage of that. The No.1 ranked Clijsters had two set points in the first set, Henin-Hardenne managed to fight back and won 7-5. The second set was no match Clijsters lost 6-1. After beating Jennifer Capriati in a three hours lasting match Justine Henin-Hardenne had doubts about playing the final. She didn’t know if she was able to compete and fight 100 percent after she had only 20 hours to recover from that hard fought victory in the semi final.

Kim Clijsters looked a bit unsure during the match, she was not able to make the shots she normaly doesn’t miss. She ended up with 40 unforced error 30 of them were produced in the first set. Justine Henin-Hardenne had 20 unforced errors on her account.

Clijsters said that Justine was just too good in this match and that her match against Capriati was the best match of the year. ‘She always had an answer for a lot of my shots’.

Justine Henin-Hardenne, who needed treatment for dehydration after the match against Jennifer Capriati, will take the second place in the ranking behind fellow Belgian Clijsters.

‘Kim and I are both great fighters and we represent Belgium very well’ Justine said.

Another Belgian took the title in the junior competition. After winning at Wimbledon Kirsten Flipkens also took the US Open Junior Championship in a final against the Dutch Michaela Krajicek 6-3 7-5.

Flipkens said she felt very confident when she woke up the morning before the final against second seed Krajicek. Krajicek felt a little disapointed with losing the final because she had defeated Flipkens one week before the final. She also said Kirsten played very well and she deserved to win.

Michaela Krajicek started the match being tired and had no chance when Flipkens started make her run for every ball.

Both finalists were scheduled to play in the junior girls double competition as partners but that was canceled due to the rain delays during the US Open.