Kim Clijsters claimed the richest purse in women’s tennis history after denying Chinese trailblazer Li Na in a riveting Australian Open final tonight.
Clijsters pocketed a monster cheque for $2.2 million after out-willing Asia’s first-ever grand slam singles finalist for a stirring 3-6 6-3 6-3 comeback win at Melbourne Park.
The 27-year-old Belgian also became the first mother to reign in Australia since Evonne Goolagong Cawley in 1977 and first woman to snare back-to-back grand slam crowns since Serena Williams completed the same US Open-Australian Open double in 2008-09.
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The two-hour, five-minute victory - in what was only the second grand slam final to go the distance in the past four-and-a-half years - handed third-seeded Clijsters her fourth career major in total and 41st title overall.
Li had toppled Clijsters in the Sydney International final in straight sets two weeks ago and, riding an 11-match winning streak, looked poised to spring another major upset after powering to a set and 3-2 lead.
Clijsters, though, refused to yield and eventually weighed Li down with her relentless and at-times remarkable retrieving from the back of the court.
Playing possibly her last Australian Open, Clijsters had not dropped a set all tournament in reaching the title match for a second time.
But the 2004 runner-up had no answer to Li’s awesome firepower in the first set-and-a-half.
Contesting her eighth grand slam final, Clijsters made a confident enough start, winning the first eight points of the match for a 2-0 lead.
Stunningly, though, Li won six of the next seven games to snatch the first set in 38 minutes.
Mixing scorching groundstrokes with crazy angles, Li continued to crunch cold winner after cold winner as she threatened to become - at 28 years and 11 months - the fifth-oldest women’s grand slam champion of the 43-year open era.
But as she closed in on a famous, landmark triumph, Li began to falter - just as her vastly experienced opponent raised her game.
From 3-2 down, the tennis supermum peeled off six straight games to seize the second set and surge ahead 2-0 in the third.
Li broke back for 2-1 but her revival was brief, the triple US Open champion winning the next two games to take a stranglehold on the match.
China’s ninth seed held serve for 3-5, but Clijsters also kept her nerve to coolly close out the contest to love when Li fired a forehand long on the Belgian’s first championship point.
Her breakthrough triumph in Australia for Lleyton Hewitt’s one-time fiancee - affectionately known Down Under as ‘‘Aussie Kim’’ - reduced Clijsters to tears.
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