CLIJSTERS KNOCKED OUT

Bye, bye, Kim Clijsters. The Australian Open faithful barely got to know the U.S. Open champ here Friday night. She was on the court for 52 minutes, and Nadia Petrova, the 19th-seeded Russian, embarrassed her pretty much every second in a thorough 6-0, 6-1 banishment. Clijsters tried to explain her two hapless sets of tennis in the third round here, which contrasted with her 20-3 win-loss record since coming back last summer after two years of marriage and motherhood. She lost the first set in just 18 minutes, and won only five points in her first seven games. “I made all the mistakes and she didn’t really have to do much,” Clijsters said. “She served really well and was aggressive in the rallies, but that’s because I let her play into the courts. Just because I wasn’t feeling the ball well.’’ The why of it, Clijsters says she’ll leave to others. (NY Times)