Kim Clijsters, the two time defending US Open champion, is the top pick to win the women's singles event at the 2011 Australian Open, the first Grand Slam of the calendar year. Clijsters, currently ranked 3rd in the world, has never won the Australian Open however that is a statement that can be said about several of the favorites.Caroline Wozniacki, the second favorite, has never won the event nor has Vera Zvonareva, the 4th favorite
Maria Sharapova, the 5th favorite, won the event in 2008 although she was a first round upset victim last season as Maria Kirilenko hit form and made a run, through Sharapova, to the Melbourne quarterfinals.With Serena Williams out of the draw, the best chance for a repeat champion at the 2011 Aussie is Justine Henin as the former champion made the finals last season. Her fitness/health is questionable at this point in her career and that makes her status as third favorite questionable as well.
Aussie hopeful Samantha Stosur, the 6th favorite, has enough promise to make the quarters or the semis however the fact remains that she has not had much success in her home country's Slam, having never made the quarters as a veteran of 8 Australian Opens now.
Clijsters is the reigning singles champion at the US Open and the Australian Open. She has also won 41 WTA singles titles and 11 WTA doubles titles. She has won four Grand Slam singles titles: three at the US Open, in 2005, 2009 and 2010 and one at the Australian Open in 2011. She has also been runner-up in four Grand Slam singles tournaments, and won the WTA Tour Championships singles title in 2002, 2003 and 2010. In doubles, she won the French Open and Wimbledon titles in 2003. Clijsters announced her retirement with immediate effect on 6 May 2007, but almost two years later, on 26 March 2009, she publicly declared her intent to return to the WTA tour for the 2009 summer hard court season. In only her third tournament back, she won her second US Open title, becoming the first unseeded player and wildcard to win the tournament, and the first mother to win a major since Evonne Goolagong in 1980.
In December 2003, Clijsters announced her engagement to Australian Lleyton Hewitt, but their relationship ended in October 2004. Clijsters is still affectionately nicknamed "Aussie Kim" by Australians. In October 2006, Clijsters announced her engagement to American basketball player Brian Lynch, who is based in Clijsters' hometown of Bree. In an interview with Sportweekend (a sports programme on Belgian Flemish television), Clijsters said that she was retiring to start a family. Clijsters and Lynch married privately on 13 July 2007, at 6 am at the Bree city hall. She was married by the mayor, with sister Elke, Lynch's brother Pat Lynch, and both sets of parents present. Clijsters gave birth to a daughter on 27 February 2008, at 1:35 pm at the Vesalius hospital in Tongeren, Belgium.
