Kim Clijsters has revealed that the possibility of bowing out with injury in her last Australian Open drove her back from the brink in a classic fourth round win over Li Na on Rod Laver Arena.
Clijsters badly rolled her ankle at 3-3 in the first set and was forced to seek treatment for the injury, during which time she seriously considered pulling the pin on her title defence.
But the thought of leaving Melbourne Park for the last time in that manner drove her on, and she went on to record a remarkable three set win, where she saved four match points.
"It definitely crossed my mind at some point, but I knew if I could just try to kind of let the medication sink in or, if I could get through the first 20 minutes, half hour I think the pain would go away a little bit and then maybe with the adrenaline I could just fly through it," she said when asked if she considering pulling the pin.
"At one point you think, Okay, I'm just gonna go for it. Once I made that decision, I didn't think. I just tried to find a solution for how I was feeling to find a new tactic, tactical game."
Clijsters said she tried to change the nature of her game and shorten the points to make her battle with the ankle injury less important.
"Even in my mind to just know that I'm not gonna be able to push off like I want to with the wide shot with my serve, but I'm gonna try to fight in any other way. I did," she said.
"I was trying to keep the points a little bit shorter, just try to be a little more aggressive whenever I had the chance. Then she started making some mistakes."
The plan to change the nature of the match didn't initially work in Clijsters' favour as Li, who was beaten by the Belgian in last year's Australian Open final, took advantage of her opponent's diminished mobility to win the first set and then sit on the precipice of victory at 6-2 in the second set tie-breaker.
Clijsters rescued all four match match, included luckily surviving when she opted for a drop shot which Li easily got to only to be lobbed by the No.11 seed.
"There was still one point to be played and to be won by her. I didn't want to give her anything for free. If she was going to come up with an ace or with a winner, too good, but I didn't want to make the mistake," she said.
"I'm not saying that that forehand dropshot was a good choice, but you make decisions. Luckily, that one turned out okay."
Clijsters said she sensed that Li may have begun to tighten up during the tie-break.
"I think she was a little bit lost or maybe a little bit confused at that time, and she made two pretty easy mistakes when we changed sides," she said.
"That made me believe in it even more in the beginning of that third set to just stick through it from the beginning and try to get, you know, as many breaks as I could in the beginning."
Clijsters raced to a 4-0 lead in the deciding set and set up another quarter final appearance, eventually closing