By Erin Bruehl, USTA.com

When Kim Clijsters ended her first tennis career in May 2008, she soon had different career roles to fill. Within a few months, she was married to basketball player Brian Lynch and less than a year later became a mother to little girl, Jada.

But soon after Jada’s first birthday in February 2009, Clijsters, 26, began thinking about a return to tennis after she was invited to participate in an exhibition at Wimbledon. The competitiveness that drove her to 34 career singles titles, including the 2005 US Open and the world No. 1 ranking, came back, and in August 2009, she made her return to the WTA Tour, this time as a mom.

In just her third tournament back, Clijsters won the 2009 US Open title, engaging in a memorable on-court celebration with Lynch and Jada, who happily pranced around the court and played with her mother’s trophy. When Clijsters planned her return, she did not envision herself having such success so quickly.

This US Open title was special, not only because she was able to share it with her own family but because she became part of history. She was the first mother to win a Grand Slam title since Evonne Goolagong Cawley in 1980 at Wimbledon. It was a victory that was no doubt inspiring to many fellow mothers in particular.

“I just wanted to come here and get a feel for it all over again, play a Grand Slam, so to start the next year I didn’t have to go through all the new experiences over,” Clijsters said after her victory. “But it means the world, and I’m just so glad that I am able to share it with my husband who is here, who wasn’t here a few years ago, and with my whole group who is here. And with our daughter, of course, who is the greatest thing ever.

“Obviously, in tennis we have Sybille Bammer, and she’s doing really good, as well,” Clijsters said of another successful WTA Tour player who is also a mother. “But to win a Grand Slam now, I think, is obviously a big deal in women’s tennis and the history of women’s tennis. So I’m glad that I’m a part of that history.”

While enjoying her new life as a wife and mom in retirement, Clijsters did not really have much time to even think about tennis. She and Brian planned their wedding, she was pregnant, and her father passed away, giving her little time for tennis until she started training again and felt that urge to not just play exhibitions but really challenge herself.

“It was literally only until the start of this year where – it’s not that I thought, like, I'll never play tennis again. I just didn't think about it. I just didn't think it or look at it as an option for me,” Clijsters said. “There were so many things going on with the wedding, and I was pregnant, and I was breastfeeding and everything. So you don’t get into the whole training routine or anything until at the start of this year, when I got that invitation to Wimbledon again.”

Of course, for her second career, her training regime and schedule have changed to adjust to her top priorities of being there for her family. She is playing a limited schedule on the WTA Tour and, after a disappointing Australian Open this year, bounced back to win the title at the prestigious Sony Ericsson Open in March.

But she is making it with the help of a supportive team, including her coaches, a nanny, as well as Lynch. And with Jada getting older now – she turned two in February – she understands more that her mom will return if she has to leave her for a few hours.

“I am going back to places I used to go to when it was just me and my coach, and now there is a whole family. I have to get used to that and adjust on a daily basis, but I have a really good team around me,” Clijsters said prior to the BNP Paribas Showdown in March. “The trust issue plays a big part. We travel with a nanny, so it is important for me to trust her so when I go running or practicing, I know Jada is in good hands. It is a crazy lifestyle that we live on Tour, and traveling with a group, with the same group all the time, it brings a little more of a home atmosphere to the tournaments.”

Traveling now as a family for a few months, Clijsters and Lynch have learned what things work best for them, including usually staying in an apartment on a Tour stop and enjoying doing things with Jada in the cities they visit. While in New York for the BNP Paribas Showdown at Madison Square Garden in March, the family took a carriage ride through Central Park. It was something they also did during the US Open, but in the winter, the park had a different feel.

Jada also is a fairly easy child to handle, making everything so much easier for Clijsters and Lynch.

“We are pretty lucky with Jada; she is a good kid. She sleeps well and does not have to adjust very long,” she said prior to the BNP Paribas Showdown. “That makes it a lot easier. If that had not been the case, it would not have been so easy. I am not doing it by myself; I have a lot of help from my team because otherwise it would not be possible.”

Clijsters is now back up to No. 11 in the world and has been as high as No. 10 since her return. She feels extremely fortunate to be able to have both a terrific family and tennis career.

“I feel very lucky that I got this chance to be back here now and that I made that decision because it's obviously been a good choice,” Clijsters said after her US Open victory. “But, again, being a mother is obviously my first priority and being a wife. But I’m just very lucky that I’m able to combine both and that my family supports me in doing this.”

And will Jada be following in her mother’s – or father’s – footsteps? Clijsters and Lynch will let her decide for herself when she is older and will support her no matter what her passion is.

“Obviously, my father was a soccer player, so we kind of grew up with that sports mentality. I think that’s something that obviously my husband has, as well,” Clijsters said of her and Lynch’s sports backgrounds after winning the Sony Ericsson Open. “If I see Jada after school going to play whatever it is – if it’s swimming, basketball, tennis, whatever it is – I’ll be more than happy to see her do that than to see her hanging out on the street and not doing anything. (But) I’m not the type of mother who is gonna say, ‘Let’s go and practice your forehand today.’ That’s not me. I mean, if she wants to do it and if she thinks it’s fun, great.”