‘Everything comes easier’: Defending US Open champion Kim Clijsters loves hard courts

Clijsters has 14-match winning streak at US Open

NEW YORK — Defending U.S. Open champion Kim Clijsters says “everything comes easier” for her on American hard courts.

Clijsters says she moves better and sees the ball better on the blue courts used at the year’s last Grand Slam tournament, which begins Monday. She says the left hip that bothered her at a tournament a week ago is doing well thanks in part to acupuncture.

The Belgian has a 14-match winning streak at the U.S. Open, taking the title the last two times she entered, in 2005 and 2009. In between, she took time off to get married and have a baby. And make no mistake: Clijsters considers herself a mother first, a tennis player second.

She says there are days when she skips practice to spend time with her 2½-year-old daughter.