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By Adrianna Outlaw
© Tony Chang/Chang Photography

(October 15, 2010) It is the final weeks of the WTA Tour season, a time when younger players ranging from Serena Williams to Svetlana Kuznetsova to Venus Williams to Agnieszka Radwanska have already pulled the plug on their season, yet 40-year-old Kimiko Date Krumm refuses to act her age. The Japanese veteran celebrated her 40th birthday last month and pulled off another significant upset today in toppling top-seeded Samantha Stosur, 5-7, 6-3, 7-6(4) to advance to the Osaka semifinals.

Date Krumm will play third-seeded Shahar Peer, who pounded seventh-seeded Iveta Benesova, 6-2, 6-0. The other semifinal pits 33-year-old Tamarine Tanasugarn against second-seeded Marion Bartoli, who blasted American Jill Craybas, 6-1, 6-2.

Some players guzzle Gatorade during changeovers, opponents may be beginning to wonder if Date Krumm has tapped into the tennis fountain of youth. She celebrated her 40th birthday on September 28th and beat her sixth top-20 ranked opponent of the season today.

Fifteen years removed from her surge to the 1995 French Open semifinals, the 39-year-old Date Krumm became the second-oldest woman in history to win a Roland Garros match, fighting back from a 1-4 deficit in the final set and overcoming calf cramps to stun two-time finalist Dinara Safina, 3-6, 6-4, 7-5, in the French Open first round in May.

Date Krumm dismissed 15th-ranked Maria Sharapova, 7-5, 3-6, 6-3, in Tokyo two weeks ago.

Pushing for a place inside the top 50, the 56th-ranked Japanese denied French Open finalist Stosur in their first meeting today.



As one of the most accomplished Japanese tennis players in history, Date reached a career-high rank of No. 5 before she retired after playing the season-ending Chase Championships at Madison Square Garden in 1996. She remain retired for a decade, but Date Krumm hardly became a couch potato during her days away from tournament tennis.

She took up swimming, then became a runner and completed the London Marathon in 2004, finishing in under three-and-a-half hours.  She spent some quality time with her husband ("We tried to make a baby, but nothing happened," Date Krumm said), became a tennis television analyst for Japanese TV and remained a spokeswoman for adidas and Yonex, her clothing and racket sponsors.

"And also I work for JACO. It means Japan International like a UNESCO," Date Krumm said. "Also I build school in Laos with my husband. So I work for like that. And then, yeah. And then I just enjoy the life with my husband. And then 2007 I start a little bit exercise for tennis. Yeah."

At the urging of her husband, Date Krumm launched her comeback two years ago. 

"He love the sport. He love the tennis. So always he ask to me, 'Why don't you play tennis one more time? This is just for fun, not serious.' " Date Krumm said of her husband. "Then he want to see me. Because when I met him, already I was retired, so he never see my only he watched, he was watching me on TV, not real. That's why. Then he push me. In 2007 match, I had exhibition match in Japan with Steffi Graf and Martina Navratilova in Japan. So I start to practice a little bit, and start exercise also. After that, then we discuss we continue to play or not, and then he push me very hard. I just decide to come back on the tour."

Because Krumm is based in Europe, the couple rarely saw each other earlier this year, but Date Krumm says they stay in touch through skype.

Playing an old-school style with abbreviated backswing off both sides that produce extremely flat strokes, the 5-foot-4 Date Krumm is a fighter who fearlessly drives the ball into all areas of the court.

A year ago, Date Krumm claimed her first tournament title in 12 years, dispatching fifth-seeded Alisa Kleybanova and top-seeded Daniela Hantuchova before stopping second-seeded Anabel Medina Garrigues to win Seoul. At the age of 38 years, 11 months and 30 days she was the second-oldest woman in Open Era history to capture a tournament title (Billie Jean King was eight months older when she won Birmingham in 1983).