The strengths of Clijsters's game are built around playing aggressively to generate offense without losing control. She excels at hitting both forehand and backhand winners from the baseline. Clijsters is regarded as one of the best returners of serve and tries to "take control of the point immediately... to herself in an offensive position from the beginning". She was aggressive in the middle of points as well. While the squash shot is generally regarded as a defensive shot, Clijsters can turn it into an offensive weapon by placing it well enough to have time to recover into a good court position. Additionally, she possesses the ability to quickly move in from the baseline to the net, setting herself up to hit winners and finish points. She is adept at hitting swinging volleys on both the forehand and backhand sides because of her solid groundstroke technique. Clijsters credits her experience in doubles for improving her net game in singles, saying "it made focus on going to the net more" and helped her "know when to come to the net". Her coach Wim Fissette attributed her success at Grand Slam events after her comeback to being more aggressive than she was before her first retirement.