London, July 06: Japan's Ai Sugiyama is promising to go into today's Wimbledon women's doubles final bearing no grudges against playing partner Kim Clijsters' recent diplomatic lapse - knocking her out of the singles draw.
"It's not fun, but you have to forget and just focus on the doubles," smiled the 27-year-old Tokyo native ahead of her meeting with top seeds Paola Suarez of Argentina and Spain's Virginia Ruano Pascual.
"I didn't have a very good game against her, which is disappointing," said Sugiyama of her 3-6 2-6 fourth round exit to Clijsters. With both players turning in solid showings in the singles - Clijsters lost in the semi-finals to Venus Williams - the Belgian-Japanese duo have had their work cut out getting through the programme of matches.
On Thursday, Clijsters had to launch into their quarter-final match against veteran Martina Navratilova and Russian teenager Svetlana Kuznetsova within hours of her semi-final loss.



"It was tough for her to come straight in after losing," said Sugiyama.


Bureau Report