Kim’s N$950 000 champagne bill

ANTWERP – World number one Kim Clijsters picked up a reported 130 000 euro (N$950 000) champagne tab after offering each of the 10 000 spectators watching her second-round match at the WTA event here on Wednesday a bottle of bubbly.

Clijsters, the reigning US Open champion, was keeping a promise she’d made last autumn when she told the Antwerp crowd that if she returned here this week having regained top spot in the WTA rankings she would buy a bottle for each fan. “Kim insisted on paying for it herself without the help from the organisers or sponsors,” said tournament director Bob Verbeeck on Thursday.The Belgian press estimated the round to have cost the Belgian tennis star in the region of 130 000 euros.This is not the first time Clijsters’s generous nature has come out – she bought a round of beer for every inhabitant of her home village of Bree to celebrate her US Open triumph.Her latest act of goodwill came after her 4-6, 7-6 (7/4), 7-5 win over French teenager Tatiana Golovin in the 600 000-euro event here.She faces Russian Dinara Safina in the third round.It was the Belgian’s first appearance on court since she pulled out of the Australian Open semi-finals with an ankle injury in her semi-final with eventual champion Amelie Mauresmo.- Nampa-AFP”Kim insisted on paying for it herself without the help from the organisers or sponsors,” said tournament director Bob Verbeeck on Thursday.The Belgian press estimated the round to have cost the Belgian tennis star in the region of 130 000 euros.This is not the first time Clijsters’s generous nature has come out – she bought a round of beer for every inhabitant of her home village of Bree to celebrate her US Open triumph.Her latest act of goodwill came after her 4-6, 7-6 (7/4), 7-5 win over French teenager Tatiana Golovin in the 600 000-euro event here.She faces Russian Dinara Safina in the third round.It was the Belgian’s first appearance on court since she pulled out of the Australian Open semi-finals with an ankle injury in her semi-final with eventual champion Amelie Mauresmo.- Nampa-AFP