Can Kim Clijsters defend her US Open title?

"Calibri","sans-serif";">Kim Clijsters defied the tennis odds at the 2009 US Open, becoming the first wildcard entry to win the US Open in the event's history, as well as being the first mother to win a Grand Slam event since Evonne Cawley triumphed at Wimbledon in 1980.
With Serena Williams, the dominant force in women’s tennis this year, not taking part in the 2010 US Open due to an injury, Clijsters knows that this year’s event is far more open than last season's renewal.
In spite of the opportunity presented to her, Clijsters has herself admitted that she is not currently finding herself in the best of form, with this announcment coming despite her comfortable victory in the second round of the US Open, in which she managed to secure a 6-2, 6-1 victory over Australian Sally Peers.
With the added pressure of being a big name this time around, combined with the fact that Ana Ivanovic has suggested that she finally feels capable of beating the top players at this year’s event, Clijsters is aware that, despite her undoubted talent, she faces an uphill battle to hold on to the trophy she famously won last season.  
However, with another of her major rivals, Venus Williams, a two-time winner of the US Open, struggling to overcome the Canadian qualifier Rebecca Marino (even requiring a tiebreaker to triumph in the first set), Cljisters knows that her main rival will be the top seed, Caroline Wozniacki.
Many pundits and those who regularly place a tennis bet rank Wozniacki and Cljisters as the stand out players in a competition that is devoid of Justine Henin and Serena Williams, and few expect anyone except these two players to be the ones to triumph at the 2010 US Open.