Clijsters routs Molik, continuing her comeback momentum in Australia

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Clijsters continues comeback momentum

BRISBANE, Australia — Kim Clijsters’ career comeback continued to gather momentum Tuesday with a 6-0, 6-3 win over Australia’s Alicia Molik at the Brisbane International.

Top-seeded Clijsters won the first eight games in the second-round match until Molik held serve.

Clijsters won the U.S. Open last September in only her third tournament back from more than two years in retirement, becoming the first mother to win a Grand Slam singles title since Evonne Goolagong Cawley at Wimbledon in 1980.

Clijsters’ title inspired a comeback by fellow Belgian and former No. 1-ranked Justine Henin, who won her first tour match since May 2008 on Monday against second-seeded Nadia Petrova of Russia.

Having Clijsters and Henin on the opposite ends of the draw sets up the possibility of an all-Belgian final leading up to the Australian Open, which starts Jan. 18.

Clijsters watched Henin’s comeback match on TV and was confident that both of them had the potential to return to the top of the women’s tour.

“She was moving really well. Didn’t look like she’d left,” Clijsters said. “Very impressive I thought.”

Clijsters said she was looking forward to another match against Henin, but also wanted to be tested by the other stars of the game.

“Of course, it will be a good challenge, but there’s a lot of other girls I look forward to playing as well,” she said, picking out Ana Ivanovic, Maria Sharapova and Venus and Serena Williams. “Those are obviously the big matches. And Justine now as well.”

Former No. 1-ranked Ivanovic struggled in a 6-2, 2-6, 6-4 win over Timea Bacsinszky in a late match to reach the quarterfinals.

On the men’s side, third-seeded Gael Monfils edged American Taylor Dent 7-6 (1), 6-7 (5), 6-2 in a night match that didn’t feature a service break until the fifth game of the third set.

James Blake continued his dominance over fifth-seeded Sam Querrey, improving to 6-1 in head-to-heads with a 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 win over his fellow American.

In other first-round matches, 2006 Australian Open finalist Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus beat American Mardy Fish 7-5, 7-5 and will next face fourth-seeded Tomas Berdych, a 6-2, 6-4 winner over Australian qualifier Nick Lindahl.

Australia’s Carsten Ball had a 7-5, 6-1 win over Germany’s Mischa Zverev to set up a match against top-seeded Andy Roddick for a place in the quarterfinals.

Clijsters is already into the quarterfinals against either Alexsandra Wozniak or Lucia Safarova.