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By Adrianna Outlaw
© Tony Chang/Chang Photography
(July 27, 2010) The ongoing horror show that is Dinara Safina's season made its 2010 US Open Series debut last night and saw Safina suffer her sixth straight loss to a familiar nemesis. World No. 61 Kimiko Date Krumm, who will celebrate her 40th birthday on September 28th, prolonged Safina's slide, 4-6, 7-6 (0), 6-2 in a two hour, 22-minute match at the Bank of the West Classic at Stanford.
Roland Garros runner-up Samantha Stosur is seeded first in Stanford. Elena Dementieva, playing her first tournament since she retired from the French Open semifinals against Francesca Schiavone, is the No. 2 seed. Date Krumm plays Dementieva for a spot in the quarterfinals of the 32-player draw.
A pair of former World No. 1 players — Safina and 2008 French Open champion Ana Ivanovic — took the stadium court producing disparate results.
Ivanovic dispatched 26th-ranked Alisa Kleybanova, 6-3, 6-2. Ivanovic has seen both her confidence and ranking in free fall. She took the court ranked No. 63 and well aware she needs to start stringing wins together as some tournaments, including the Rogers Cup, are not giving her wild cards meaning she is facing the prospect of playing qualifying if she doesn't revive her ranking.
"It's very tough," Ivanovic said of her fall and its impact on her psyche. "You doubt and you question many things. But I think also now it's a process. Now I try not to dwell too much on that and try to be in the moment. I've been working very hard to try to get back. It seemed like the harder I would try, the further I was getting away from me. I just tried to relax and be in the moment and not think too much about the result."
Ivanovic will face either former champion Marion Bartoli, the No. 4 seed, or American Ashley Harkleroad for a place in the quarterfinals.
Since retiring from her Australian Open round of 16 match against Maria Kirilenko, Safina, who started the year ranked No. 2, has slumped to a 1-6 record as her ranking has plummeted to No. 35.
Searching for a shred of positive news in what has been a bleak season, Safina said her back is not bothering her. Safina has been bothered by a back injury for much of the last year and was sidelined for three months due to the injury.
"In the important moments, she played pretty well," Safina said. "I had so many chances, but I didn't use them. My back feels fine, and that is the most important thing for me."
The match was a rematch of the French Open first round.
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 Safina, 3-6, 6-4, 7-5.
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.
At the urging of her husband, race car driver Michael Krumm, Date Krumm launched her comeback two years ago.