"I was feeling very weird out there today," Clijsters said. "I felt very empty. The second set wasn't good at all. I just hit the wall. All of a sudden I just felt no power in my legs to push off."
But she played the important points well in the third set.
Hingis said the difference was partly in her head.
"I always used to have this mental edge over other players," she said.
The comeback will continue, with Hingis heading next to Tokyo while mapping out which tournaments -- and how many -- that she will contest this year.
"You think I'm going to give up right now?" she asked.
Clijsters sees good things ahead for Hingis.
"I think she definitely hits the ball a lot harder than she used to," Clijsters said. "That was something that she was missing when Venus and Serena started coming up. She's definitely, definitely capable of getting back to the top.
"By getting more matches and more rhythm and everything, she's going to improve even more. She puts a lot of work into not just her tennis but everything else around it as well. As long as you keep doing that, it pays off."
Kiefer already had been fined for making ``audible and visible obscenities'' in his first-round, five-set win over Paradorn Srichaphan of Thailand.
Yesterday, he frequently questioned line calls, losing his cool as he lost the fourth-set tiebreaker and again when he was broken for a second time in the fifth set. In a bizarre point at 40-30 in the 12th game of the fifth set, Kiefer tossed his racket over the net just after Grosjean -- serving to stay in the match -- hit a forehand into the net.
Grosjean immediately appealed for a hindrance ruling, but was denied by umpire Carlos Bernardes and then argued unsuccessfully with Grand Slam supervisor Mike Morrissey.
When the point was confirmed for Kiefer, making it deuce, the crowd erupted with loud boos and whistling.
In the end, Grosjean held the game, but was broken the next time he served at 6-7 to finish the match in 4:48.
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