Former world No 1 Kim Clijsters cannot wait to get back into the heat of the action when she begins her comeback after more than two years away at next week's Cincinnati Open.

Just under 18 months after giving birth to her daughter, Jada, the Belgian will start what she intends to be a full comeback with a first-round match against in-form Marion Bartoli of France.

She then plans to play the WTA event in Toronto and the US Open at the end of the month.

"I'm excited," the 26-year-old told a news conference in Cincinnati on Saturday. "I've been practising for a long time now and I am anxious to start.

"It was really necessary to practise and get back into shape but now I've been there for a while and I want to play matches. I look forward to playing."

Clijsters retired in May 2007 but the seeds of a return were planted in her mind in January of this year when Wimbledon asked if she would join Steffi Graf, Andre Agassi and Tim Henman in an exhibition to test the new sliding roof over Centre Court.

Small steps

While practising for the Wimbledon event, which took place in May, she got the taste back, although regaining full fitness was especially tough, even for a woman renowned as one of the best athletes in the game.

"I still tried to run and to stay in shape but it was nothing compared to what I was like before, when I was playing," she said.

"Just getting my body back into normal shape after having Jada was tough enough and then trying to get back into tennis shape, it takes a long time, you have to take small steps.

"I didn't want to get injured, I did a lot of prevention exercises. My biggest goal was to try and get my core very stable so I can still move the way that I want to on the court."

Clijsters said she would know much more about how far she can go once the US Open is over.

"For me, it's not something, not yet at least, about the results," she said. "My personal goals are physically trying to learn again what's missing, what's good and what could be better and just go from there.

"I want to take these three tournaments and see: where am I at? What do I need to work on in the off-season?

"Although I feel good in practice, that doesn't mean it's going to be that way in matches. I want to get a feel for it all over again and re-evaluate my game and my physical condition and go from there."

The Belgian, whose only grand slam title came at the US Open in 2005, topped the world rankings for the first time in 2003 and has held the No 1 spot for 19 weeks in all.

(Reuters via China Daily August 10, 2009)