Kim Clijsters beaten by Garbine Muguruza at WTA Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championship

Kim Clijsters went down to a brave defeat against Spain's Garbine Muguruza in a battle of the former world No 1s at the WTA Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships on Monday.

Clijsters returned to professional tennis for the first time in seven years and the Belgian put on an impressive performance, despite going down 6-2 7-6 (8-6) to the Australian Open finalist.

"A player that played incredible can play incredible again so I was expecting it was going to be hard" admitted Muguruza after her win.

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Clijsters made the announcement that she would be returning to the court at the end of last year, but a wrist injury ended hopes of beginning her comeback at last month's first Grand Slam in Melbourne.

The 36-year-old, who won four Grand Slam titles but last played in 2012 at the US Open, was due to play Kiki Bertens but the Dutchwoman pulled out of the tournament after winning the title in St Petersburg.

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Two-time Grand Slam champion Muguruza is a two-time semi-finalist in Dubai and she will be hoping for another deep run in the competition after hitting 19 winners on her way to victory in 97 minutes of action.

Clijsters served five double faults as she lost a 32-minute first set and when she went a break down in the second, it looked like being a short-lived first outing on her latest comeback.

She levelled at 4-4 and saved two break points in the next game to eventually set up a tie-break, but the Spaniard had too much in the tank and took it 8-6 to advance to a last-16 clash with either Veronika Kudermetova or Dayana
Yastremska.

Clijsters first retired from tennis in 2007, taking a break to have the first of her three children, but came back within 24 months to claim three of her four major titles and return to the top of the rankings in 2011.

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