Kim Clijsters won the battle of the 'comeback queens' with a closely-fought 6-3 4-6 7-6 (8-6) success over Belgian compatriot Justine Henin in the final of the Brisbane International.
The match was an epic, with the two great rivals battling it out for two hours and 23 minutes before Clijsters eventually claimed victory in a tense tie-breaker.
Both players showed they will be a force to be reckoned with in the upcoming Australian Open, with the standard of tennis befitting a final.
It was Clijsters who took the initiative in the opening exchanges, taking the first set with ease and then racing to a 4-1 lead in the second set.
But Henin displayed the tenacity that once propelled her to the pinnacle of women's tennis, reeling off five straight games to take the match to a decider.
The 28-year-old continued to force the issue at the start of the third, immediately breaking her opponent and twice holding serve to race out to a 3-0 lead.
Clijsters then broke back to put the match on level terms, only to find Henin up to the task with her own break of serve.
The topsy-turvy final set eventually went to a tie-breaker, where Clijsters seemed to be gaining the edge with a 4-0 lead, but in keeping with the nature of the contest, Henin surged
again to level it at 6-6.
Clijsters finally broke the Henin resistance when she converted her fourth championship point, bringing to a close an exhilarating match.
Clijsters said afterwards: ‘What a match!
‘I think we set the bar pretty high for ourselves for the rest of the year.
‘Justine played at a really high level for the whole tournament so congratulations.’
Henin was disappointed with the loss but enthused about her own form leading into the first grand slam of the year.
She said: ‘It's just great to be back, I want to congratulate Kim she's a great player and it was an amazing final.’
