THE way the tributes have flooded in for Kim Clijsters here in the last few days you might have imagined she had passed away, rather than decided against playing tennis any more.

The 29-year-old from Belgium retires from tennis after this year's US Open, a tournament which she has won three times, and at points in the interview room yesterday the mutual appreciation society had reached such Princess Diana-esque proportions that this corner of New York was more gushing than Flushing.

Venus Williams said she was "amazing", and "when she's playing great and feeling confident it still takes a hurricane to beat her".

"She's always so bright and has such a positiveness about her that you can't help but wish her the best," said Venus's sister Serena.

"Yeah, I mean, what is there to say about Kim?" was Maria Sharapova's attempt, and even Andy Murray was unable to avoid being dragged into it – "I'm sure she will be remembered as one of the best players that played over the last 15, 20 years, and also one of the best people," the Scot said. Refreshingly, Clijsters avoided wallowing in the cloying sentimentality of it all, preferring to focus on her chances of ending her time in the sport with a fifth grand slam title to her name.

She returned to tennis –after the birth in 2008 of her daughter Jada – to add the 2009 and 2010 US Opens, and 2011 Australian Open, to her 2005 victory at Flushing Meadows. She begins her campaign with the match which kicks off tonight's night session, against American wild card Victoria Duval and, having missed out last year due to injury, has not actually lost a singles match here since 2008.

Another sign of her focus is that she has entered all three events, the first time she has done so since the days of playing mixed doubles with her first husband Lleyton Hewitt.

"I'm obviously very excited to be back here after not being able to participate last year due to an injury in my stomach muscle," Clijsters said. "Obviously this place is magical for me, I have had so many beautiful memories. I have enjoyed coming here from when I was a junior. I love the surface, I love the atmosphere. I'm not really thinking about retiring yet. I'm still focusing on trying to be in the best shape I can be."

"My mindset is not any different," she added. "Of course it is to try to win. I have trained very hard for the last year to try to stay in good shape. I feel that I'm probably in the best shape I have been in."

Clijsters, whose father Leo – a former professional footballer and coach – passed away in 2009, may not have thought too much about her life after tennis but she travels with her daughter on tour and it is clear that her family life is hugely important to her.

"I was in the locker room with a physio the other day and there were two other mums lying on the massage chairs," Clijsters said. "We were laughing because we were saying how we needed it the most. Girls of 16 were walking in and we were like 'no, get away, we need this'.

"Especially in the beginning it was hard to be satisfied with the time I was putting into my career as a tennis player but also the time to be satisfied as a mother and wife."

Ahead of Clijsters' evening appearance comes the return of the reigning champion, even if she has hardly hogged too much of the limelight this week.

Sam Stosur, from the Gold Coast in Australia, again plays in the Arthur Ashe Stadium – where she last year shocked Serena Williams – to take on Petra Martic of Croatia.

The Australian will hope to derive some inspiration from the memory of that 6-4, 6-4 final win because 2012 has been a troubled year.

"Of course, I wish I had done better for the first part of this year but everything goes the way it goes for a reason," Stosur said. "A few things came out of it [my win last year] which was nice. But it is harder to know where you fall in the markets. The more you win, obviously, the more opportunities come by."

Speaking of opportunities, Heather Watson has an intriguing one against in-form former French Open champion Li Na of China, while Laura Robson seems to have a more winnable match against American qualifier Samantha Crawford. The two Britons are just embarking on their careers but they will have done well indeed if they can find as many people lining up to say nice things about them as Clijsters.