BRUSSELS, Belgium -- Kim Clijsters' romance with Australian Lleyton Hewitt is over and they will not be getting married in February as planned, the Belgian said on Friday.

"Kim Clijsters and Lleyton Hewitt have jointly decided to put an end to their relationship for private reasons," Clijsters said on her Web site.

The pair got engaged in December, and last month Clijsters said she was planning a fairy-tale wedding in a Belgian chateau.

The world No. 10 said she and Hewitt, 23, did not wish to elaborate on the reason for their split.

"Both of us distance ourselves from the malicious gossip which inevitably surfaces in this kind of situation," she added.

Clijsters, 21, has been plagued with injuries over the past year and is out for the rest of the season after suffering a wrist injury at the Belgian Open earlier this month.

World No. 3 Hewitt withdrew from this week's Madrid Masters before the start of the tournament.

Hewitt first invited Clijsters out in late 2000 to a party for fellow Australian Pat Rafter and they got engaged after a romantic boat trip around Sydney Harbor.

"It is sad because Australian tennis fans have come to love Kim, and I think we will continue to, just as we do with Lleyton," former Davis Cup player John Alexander was quoted as saying by Australian Associated Press on Friday.

"I have never seen two people more in love and being so generous to each other. Let's just hope it is a hiccup and they get over it but if not, we wish them well," Alexander, now a TV commentator, added.

A marriage between the pair would have followed in the footsteps of Steffi Graf and Andre Agassi, who married in 2001 and have two children.


P.S., Hi, Lynn.