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| Alize Cornet See Through |
And Clijsters promised she would from now on as she takes aim at tougher targets in the Australian Open.
The third seed struggled with a "tricky" rival to close out a see-sawing first set on Saturday before finding another gear to spoil the Frenchwoman's 22nd birthday.
Clijsters conjured a 7-6 (7-3) 6-3 victory to scrape through to the fourth round then agreed with Cornet's assessment; she can do better.
"I know that, I know I can," Clijsters said.
"But, you know, you never play a whole tournament playing your best tennis. And you have to also work for it. I think that's what I had to do today.
"Tomorrow out on the practice court I'm going to try to hit a lot of balls, try to get that feel for it again, move better. Just little things that keep that rhythm or get the rhythm to where I want it to be."
The popular Belgian said she sometimes felt she was facing a split personality.
"She was a tricky player. I think her forehand and backhand, it's like two different players almost.
"She really has a lot of variety in her game, not so much by touch, slice and everything, but I think with her forehand she was really putting a lot of heavy spin on it, moving a lot of balls as well.
"With her backhand, she was hitting shorter, low over the net flat balls. It was up to me to keep my footwork on key every time ready to adjust," she said.
"I felt that I was building my points pretty well when I was in charge, but a couple times missed easier volleys, felt that I could have maybe hit a drive volley and finished off the points a little bit sooner."
Meanwhile, world No.2 Vera Zvonareva aims to prove with every match she is a worthy Australian Open contender.
The Russian lost finals at both Wimbledon and the US Open last year but said after beating seeded Czech Lucie Safarova there were elements in her game she could improve on in Melbourne.
"The level of my game, if you would compare today's match to my first match, I think I was playing a different level already," she said.
"I still think there's still room for improvement.
"And there are those situations I have been in today where I had my chances and didn't use them, and then we had to go into this long second set.
"That's something that I will definitely have to improve for the next matches.
"I will definitely have to step up and keep my game throughout the whole match, especially at this stage of the tournament.
"I think there was a moment where maybe I was not aggressive enough, and I let her dominate a little bit before I was dictating the game, and then I let her step up and go for her shots a little bit."
Pole Agnieszka Radwanska cruised into the fourth round, the No.12 seed blasting Romanian Simona Halep 6-1 6-2.
Thirteenth-seeded Russian Nadia Petrova was not so fortunate, going down in a drawn-out three-setter to Russian Ekaterina Makarova, who won eventually 6-2 3-6 8-6.
