I had a very busy few days for the previous week. First we had to prepare for Jada's second birthday. I had lots of help from Wim's girlfriend Karolien who was over and together we cooked up a storm for the guests canapés and a nice brunch. Jada had a great time, mixing with her cousins and opening presents but she suddenly went shy and started crying when we sung happy birthday. Maybe she doesn't like the attention - like her mother! Then later that afternoon we left for New York for the BNP Paribas Showdown at Madison Square Garden. It was 10 years since I last played there in my very first WTA Championships and I was thrilled to be back there. The last time I was at MSG I was there with my father and we shared a lot of nice memories. We stayed at the lovely Essex House hotel overlooking central park which was covered in snow. It was so different to how we usually remember New York in the summer. Brian, Jada and I took a carriage ride one evening, and that's the picture I managed to post on my twitter account!

On Monday there was lots of interviews to do to promote the event, and I was pretty happy with my level in both matches I played. The atmosphere for the final with Venus was amazing. They played Alicia Key's song "Empire State of Mind" during my warm-up and it brought back all the wonderful memories of last year in the Big Apple. On Tuesday, I stayed on to do some media activities for the WTA, including a visit to Vogue's offices in the city, it slightly reminded me of the movie "The Devil Wears Prada". On Wednesday we headed back home in the morning, only to get up at 6:30am the next day to head back down for a full day photo shoot with one of my new sponsors. Friday I did a call to talk about my Laureus Comeback nomination, which was held today in Abu Dhabi. It was a pity I couldn't be there in person but I'm proud and honoured to receive such a prestigious award - and it was third time lucky :-)

On Saturday we went to see the Villanova Wildcats play, Brian's old team, which they sadly lost a very exciting game on overtime. I don't think I could have handled to watch if Brian was still playing. I have caught the American college basketball bug, its amazing to see the fans and the atmosphere there for college-level sports. The players are so motivated and fired up, its just nice to see and hopefully some can make it to the NBA one day, and if not come and play in the Belgian league.

I'm looking forward to being a part of the team that'll play Fed Cup in Hasselt against Estonia. We are going through a really strong time in Belgian women's tennis, with Justine, Yanina, Kirsten and myself, all playing well right now, so it will be nice to share this with the Belgian public, so I hope you all come out to watch and support us!

I have an amazing story to tell too. My sister called to tell me about my uncle Jan and his wife (who were visiting us in New York). On their flight home last Friday evening, there was a crazy passenger that wasn't feeling well and tried to break one of the windows and was behaving very violently. The cabin crew struggled to restrain him until my uncle got up (he's quite tall and strong) and helped subdue the man. When he got back to Brussels he was being called a hero of sorts, I'm just proud of him and that no one one got hurt.

So March madness begins here in the States and I hope I play well. I'm looking forward to it.

Kim xxx