in the second round to Yanina Wickmayer. At the US Open, she failed to repeat her third-round appearance of the previous year, losing in the first round to Patty Schnyder. By the end of the year, she reached two International-level quarterfinals, at the Korea Open and Luxembourg Open. She had been troubled by a recurring wrist injury and underwent surgery at the end of the 2010 season. 2011–12: First WTA Tour title Flipkens struggled at the beginning of 2011, starting with a first-round loss at the Australian Open and did not win one singles match on the WTA Tour in main draws until May. She then reached the semifinals at the Morocco Open in Fes, during the clay-court season. At the Rosmalen Championships, she teamed up with CoCo Vandeweghe to reach the semifinals in doubles. By the end of the year, she didn't make any significant result, primarily losing in the first rounds and failing in the qualifyings. After weak results in the second half of 2011, she returned to the ITF Circuit. She made two $25k level finals but failed to win the title in both of them. Then in April 2012, doctors discovered four life-threatening blood clots in her calf, which prevented her from playing for two months. During this time, her ranking dropped to No. 262, and she lost her funding from the Flemish Tennis Association (VTV). She returned to the WTA Tour at the Rosmalen Championships, where she beat Samantha Stosur in the first round and later reached semifinals, before she lost to Nadia Petrova. She qualified for the US Open and made it to the second round, where she was defeated by eventual finalist, Victoria Azarenka. She also partnered with Kim Clijsters in doubles, but they were beaten in the first round. In September 2012, she won the Tournoi de Québec that also was her first WTA title, after wins over top-seeded Dominika Cibulková, Mona Barthel and Lucie Hradecká, among others. She continued with success, participating at the Generali Ladies Linz tournament in October, where she won through qualifying and got onto the main draw. She then defeated Alizé Cornet in the first round, a qualifier in the second round, and second seed Ana Ivanovic 6–4, 6–0 in the quarterfinals. She then lost in three sets to Julia Görges in the semifinals. This result brought her to a career-high 58th position in the WTA rankings.