MONTREAL – It took four minutes short of three hours, but Kimiko Date-Krumm outlasted Monica Niculescu 7-6, 4-6, 6-2 Tuesday to advance to the second round of the Rogers Cup.
Date-Krumm was the higher-ranked of the two, and so would be expected to win, in theory. But the effort was noteworthy because of an injury timeout in the first set that sent her off court to have her left quad taped -and because Niculescu, at 22, is young enough to be Date-Krumm’s daughter.
That’s true of most of her opponents these days, because she turns 40 Sept. 28.
If she can beat No. 17 seed Marion Bartoli today, she’ll return to the top 50 for the first time since 1996 when, isolated, stressed out and homesick, the 26-year-old from Japan retired from the WTA Tour still ranked in the top 10.
It is no longer a comeback; she’s back.
Encouraged by German race car driver husband Michael Krumm, who felt she had unfinished business on the tennis court, Date-Krumm contemplated a return after she welcomed Martina Navratilova and Steffi Graf (barely a year older) to Tokyo for an exhibition early in 2008.
Two months later, she started playing small events in her homeland. In her first tournament, a $50,000 event, she won eight matches through the qualifying and the main draw before losing in the final. She also won the doubles with 16-year-old countrywoman Kurumi Nara.
She played 12 events (all but one in Japan) and got her ranking up to No. 186. She played 20 in 2009 and broke into the top 70.
This year, Date-Krumm has three wins over top-20 players. And while there have been a bumps along the way, most notably the calf strain and cramping she suffered in a huge upset win over Dinara Safina at the French Open, she’s a force with a canny, unorthodox game that can confound her one-dimensional power opponents.
"I enjoy being on Tour. In the first career, I couldn’t enjoy it," she said yesterday. "I don’t speak so much English, don’t like Western food, don’t like hotels, so I always had stress."
This generation of tennis players can’t imagine all that tournament downtime without texting, iPads, and Twitter.
But back in those days, the Internet was just an infant, and cellphones were nonexistent. It was a huge challenge for Date-Krumm to handle the isolation.
"Also, at that time, there were not so many Japanese (athletes), so I had big pressure from the Japanese media," she added. "Now it’s not only about the tennis. It’s baseball, golf, many Japanese athletes around the world. But at the time not so many. It was very, very tough."
In the qualifying last weekend, Date-Krumm schooled 24-year-old Katie O’Brien, then outlasted 19-year-old Urszula Radwanska in a third-set tiebreak before bowing out quickly to big-serving Aussie Jarmila Groth on Sunday. She got into the main draw as a lucky loser when Maria Sharapova withdrew late.
If she’s an inspiration to 40-year-olds everywhere (even if most could never dream of being anywhere near as fit), she should also be an inspiration to the 20-yearolds she faces (most of whom also couldn’t dream of being anywhere as fit).
Date-Krumm had never played Niculescu, couldn’t even pronounce her name. But she had done her homework, gathered her data, and formulated a game plan. There was no, "I really don’t know much about her. I’m just going to play my game" stuff.
"My goal today was to go to net because if I wait, the ball was sometimes slow, and to the side (with sidespin), and sometimes coming very fast," she said. "If I couldn’t get to the net, I wait, I wait, the get the chance and go, and finally it was working. Also, when I was receiving, I also needed to attack, put pressure on her."
Niculescu is one of the funkiest players out there, with a loopy two-handed forehand and another one-handed slice forehand with sidespin that she began to use to great effect after Date-Krumm jumped out to a 3-0 first-set lead.
The quad injury affected Date-Krumm when she had to bend down low, which she did for the slice. And the variety of spins took most of the balls out of the hitting zone she favours with her unusually flat, compact forehand.
But Date-Krumm hit drop shots, she sliced, she attacked the net. She found a way.
And there had to be satisfaction in the knowledge that after most of their many long, side-to-side, gruelling baseline rallies, more often than not it was Niculescu who made an error on the next point because she hadn’t fully recovered.
Date-Krumm hit those shots back in the day. But she uses them more now to counter the relentless power from so many of her opponents, who tend to stand a long way behind the baseline and are vulnerable to them.
But there’s another, very 2010 component Date-Krumm has added to her game: a loud "C’Mooooooooon!" after big points.
"I never did that before," she admitted, almost sheepishly. "But my husband says I must show more emotions (on the) outside, so I changed a little bit."
Date-Krumm knows she’s just one big injury away from the end, and she doesn’t know when that end will be.
At the moment, she’s thinking two more years, until the summer of ’42.
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Date-Krumm highlights
Visit our tennis blog for a photo gallery and video from Date-Krumm’s match at the Rogers Cup yesterday.
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