Kim Clijsters: Will the Australian Open Be Hers to Lose?

Provided she's healthy, if there's any such thing as a sure bet on the unpredictable WTA Tour, it would have to be Kim Clijsters on a hard court. She is the defending champion at the Australian Open, and it's hard not to see her going back-to-back in Melbourne.

Since her return to the tour in 2009 after a brief retirement, the Belgian has won three of her four career Grand Slam singles titles, which includes U.S. Open triumphs in '09 and '10. And all six of the titles she's won during her comeback have come on hard courts, which has been long been her best surface.

Her 2011 campaign was plagued by injuries as she was unable to compete for lengthy stretches. However, 2012 is already off to a good start for Clijsters as she's already advanced to the semifinals in her first tournament of the year in Brisbane.

 That's a good sign that she's ready for Grand Slam play under conditions that suit her.

Clijsters is one of the strongest baseliners in the history of the women's game, and is capable of going from offense to defense—often identified by one of her signature open splits—in a minute.

Her serve, while not being as big as the Williams sisters', is still a weapon and she uses it well to start the point to her advantage. Her return, also one of the game's best, is made more effective on faster surfaces and she puts an enormous amount of pressure on her opponents to hold.

What also makes her a threat on the hard courts is her ability to open up the court with sharp angles and pull her opponent off the court. She knows how to volley extremely well, as evidenced by the fact she owns a pair of Grand Slam doubles titles and is a former No. 1 in that discipline, too.

With Clijsters, Serena Williams and Venus Williams missing large parts of 2011, the French Open, Wimbledon and the U.S. Open were up for grabs and all three of those tournaments were won by first-time major champions.

Clijsters' win at the Australian Open was perhaps the only result that made sense at the onset of the tournament.

There will be a number of former Slam champions in the field in Australia, but if Clijsters' health holds up, it would be hard to see her not defending the title, especially with the tournament and conditions being much to her liking.