She entered in singles, doubles and mixed doubles, another indication that Clijsters hoped for a grand exit, that she wanted to soak it in. Then the questions started, one after another, about how it felt to be so close to the end, about, even, if she planned to play any senior tournaments. This to a player who turned 29 in June.

“Are you sending me on the senior tour already?” Clijsters asked.

Clijsters held no illusions as to her status in this tournament. On Saturday, she pronounced Serena Williams not only the favorite in 2012 but the “best player ever,” too. Clijsters’s quarter of the bracket features Li Na (ninth seed), Samantha Stosur (seventh seed, defending champion) and Victoria Azarenka (top seed).

Still, Clijsters trained enough in recent months that she will enter this Open in “maybe the best shape I’ve been in.” Even though her last major title came in 2011, at the Australian Open, that fitness level, combined with the state of the women’s tour, led to speculation she might eventually come back.

Clijsters shook her head. What made now the right time?

“Here,” she said and pointed to her heart. “You feel when it’s right.”

As the end draws near, Clijsters seemed sentimental. When she started on the WTA Tour, players like Steffi Graf and Monica Seles left her in awe. It took her some time to adjust to just being in their presence. Now she plays and returns to the hotel, to her family. That is different, too. Another reason to walk away.

Clijsters’s retirement will remove from the Tour one of its most popular players. One after another, her top competitors lobbed compliments Clijsters’s way on Saturday. Stosur called Clijsters “the kind of player you don’t want to see go.” Venus Williams said Clijsters “had a resurgence like no other.” Azarenka called Clijsters “an inspiration, definitely.”

Azarenka added: “We’ll definitely see the best of Kim here.”

History backs up that assertion. Of Clijsters’s 41 career singles titles, 17 came in North America. Three came at the United States Open.