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Clijsters retires after second round US Open defeat

NEW YORK: Triple US Open champion Kim Clijsters's career came to disappointing and lacklustre end on Wednesday when she slumped to a shock second-round defeat to British teenager Laura Robson. Clijsters, the former world number one and four-time Grand Slam title winner, lost 7-6 (7/4), 7-6 (7/5) to the 18-year-old world number 89, who goes on to face China's ninth seed Li Na for a place in the last 16. Clijsters, who was also the 2011 Australian Open winner, was on a 22-match winning streak in New York. But she had always insisted that the 2012 US Open would be her last tournament as she intended to retire for a second time to spend more time with her four-year-old daughter Jada and husband Brian, who was watching on Wednesday. Robson, at 18, is the youngest player in the top 100 and has now reached the third round of a Grand Slam for the first time. She was just five when Clijsters made her New York debut back in 1999. "It was my dream coming true when I won here in 2005. I was always inspired and played some of my greatest matches here," said an emotional Clijsters, the champion in 2005, 2009 and 2010. "It's the perfect place to retire. I wish it wasn't today but there's no doubt that if I could pick a tournament to play my last singles match then this would be it. "Laura played very well. I fought but it wasn't good enough." Clijsters, who returned to the WTA Tour in 2009 after retiring for the first time, said she had no regrets over a career which also took her to number one in the world. "It's been a great adventure for my team and my family. It was all worth it but now I look forward to the next part of my life. "When I cmame back in 2009, it was crazy. I hadn't picked up a tennis racquet for two years and my dad had died. So when I won in 2009, it was a real emotional roller-coaster. It was hard to take it all in." Robson's sensational victory will be a footnote in the Clijsters story despite her stirring performance. The former Wimbledon junior champion survived a 10-minute assault on her serve in the 12th game of the opening set and then battled back from 2-5 down in the tie-breaker. She went an early break down in the second set to get level at 2-2 before the 29-year-old Clijsters fought off two break points in the sixth game. Clijsters saved two match points at 5-6 down, the second with her fifth ace of the tie, to send the set into another breaker. But Robson set up a third match point with a pinpoint down the line forehand and took her famous victory when Clijsters batted a backhand long and out.