Kim now the lady of the ring

TENNIS champ Kim Clijsters shone yesterday even before she hit a ball.

Clijsters, 20, engaged to Lleyton Hewitt, 22, dazzled all when she strode on to the court at the Hopman Cup in Perth with her flashy diamond engagement ring on display.

Diamond valuers contacted by The Daily Telegraph yesterday put a retail price tag on the solitaire diamond ring - estimated to be between four and five carats - of more than $200,000.

Clijsters, who will play against Hewitt in a mixed doubles match tomorrow, said yesterday the impending wedding was one of her main goals for the year.

She said no date had been set as she and Hewitt still had to sit down and work out the fine details.

"I don't think there is any pressure on our relationship. It just depends on the way you look at things," she said yesterday.

"We are in the highlights a lot of the time, because we play tennis and it does not influence us at all, and I don't think it will change anything at all."

Sporting the monster rock on her left hand, the blonde Belgian, ranked second in the world, powered to victory against world No.19 Daniela Hantuchova 6-1 6-2 yesterday.

The Daily Telegraph

Lleyton pops the question                                       
By Leo Schlink
December 24, 2003
THE first couple of tennis, Lleyton Hewitt and Kim Clijsters, are to wed.

Former world champion Hewitt proposed yesterday to world No.2 Clijsters while on a cruise on Sydney Harbour.

Hewitt's management company Octagon last night confirmed that the pair, who have been friends for four years in January, are to wed.

No date has been set for the union of the former world No.1 ranked players.

"It was a special evening together in one of the most beautiful cities in the world," the 22-year-old

Hewitt said. "We couldn't have asked for more."

Clijsters, 20, was overjoyed but still expressed some surprise at the trouble Hewitt went to with setting up the proposal.

"Lleyton did surprise me a bit but I couldn't be happier," she said.

"He has always been one to pay great attention to detail but I think he outdid himself this time.

"It was amazing."

Hewitt and Clijsters are the most high profile playing couple on the circuit.

They are regular practice partners and have played in mixed doubles tournaments - the highlight being their 2000 Wimbledon final appearance.

They had declared they were an item just weeks before at the French Open.

The relationship rivals that of Jimmy Connors who proposed to Chris Evert in the 1970s. The US pair were both world No.1s at the same time.

Tennis's other big love match is Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf.

Sports industry insiders believe Hewitt and Clijsters could become the most marketable tennis couple in the world because their best years still are ahead.

Hewitt last night told his parents - Glynn and Cherilyn - while Clijsters also was busy telephoning her family in Belgium.

"Both sets of parents are very pleased," Glynn Hewitt said last night.

Hewitt's Adelaide-based family are not alone in welcoming Clijsters to the Australian fold. Even before the wedding news, many fans considered her an honorary Aussie.

Engaged!  extract from Kims diary on her official site.
Lleyton has surprised me!He took me out for dinner on a boat and suddenly came up with a ring and earrings! I did not know what was happening to me. But I am very happy about it.

In Australia, being engaged means a lot, so the family here are over the moon.Of course, in my place they are too. There are no concrete plans yet, we will see. But I am really very happy about my early christmas present.

Further not much news from here. The heat has been replaced by storms and rain. So we are training indoors now. And I heard that Serena is not participating in the Hopman Cup? That's a pity, as I would have liked to see her. During the Masters, we hardly talked to each other, so this would have been a good opportunity.

Enjoy the christmas days,

Kim

Hewitt takes love match with Clijsters to the next level
By Neil Harman, Tennis Correspondent December 24, 2003


LLEYTON HEWITT may not strike one as the most sensitive of souls. Beneath that granite exterior, though, there obviously beats the heart of an old romantic. The portents for an engagement between two leading tennis players may not be good but Hewitt’s proposal yesterday to Kim Clijsters — and he did not, apparently, have to urge her to “C’mon” to accept — has a feel of the everlasting about it.
Hewitt chose a wonderfully evocative place, astride the Sydney Harbour Bridge, to ask his Belgian sweetheart if she would do him the honour — they have been inseparable for two years — and there was no hesitation on Clijsters’s part. The wedding will probably take place in 2005.



It could hardly have been a more perfect December for the 2002 Wimbledon champion. He steered Australia to the Davis Cup victory he had set his sporting heart on, discovered that his wife-to-be had become the richest single-year earner in the history of women’s tennis — a cool £3 million and she did not even win a grand-slam event — and now he is to marry the most unspoilt 20-year-old who has ever trod the world’s courts.

Just recently, Hewitt shelled out $A4 million (about £2 million) for what is presumed to be the most expensive house bought in his home city of Adelaide. It has wonderful sea views, a cinema, waterfalls, a games room and, one supposes, plenty of room for extensions should any little Hewitts come along.

It will not have escaped the attention of Hewitt, 23 in February, that Clijsters loves to be around children and is forever dropping hints that she wants a big family. For now, their attention is focused on starting the new year by slaking their thirst for success on the courts, not least in Hewitt’s case, with the Australian Open, a tournament where dominant form has consistently eluded him, starting on January 19.

The pair are scheduled to play in the adidas International in Sydney the preceding week, where Clijsters will renew her rivalry with Justine Henin-Hardenne, her fellow Belgian and world No 1. Pat Rafter — a potential best man — who retired from the circuit at the end of 2002, has announced that he will partner Joshua Eagle in doubles at both the Australian Hardcourt Championships in Adelaide, starting on January 5, and the Open itself. There is no hint, as yet, that Rafter is planning a singles comeback.