Kimiko Date Krumm

Country	Japan
Residence	Tokyo, Japan
Date of birth	28 September 1970 (1970-09-28) (age 39)
Place of birth	Kyoto, Japan
Height	1.63 m (5 ft 4 in)
Weight	53.0 kg (117 lb; 8.35 st)
Turned pro	March 1989
Retired	1996; comeback in 2008
Plays	right-handed (born left-handed)
Career prize money	US$2,124,623
Singles
Career record	294-119
Career titles	8 WTA, 10 ITF
Highest ranking	No. 4 (13 May 1995)
Current ranking	No. 71 (30 November 2009)
Grand Slam results
Australian Open	SF (1994)
French Open	SF (1995)
Wimbledon	SF (1996)
US Open	QF (1993, 1994)
Doubles
Career record	88-61
Career titles	1 WTA, 6 ITF
Highest ranking	No. 33 (24 August 1992)
Grand Slam Doubles results
Australian Open	QF (1992)
French Open	2R (1993)
Wimbledon	2R (1991)
US Open	2R (1993)
Last updated on: 9 October 2009.

Kimiko Date Krumm (クルム伊達 公子, Kurumu Date Kimiko^?, born 28 September 1970) is a Japanese professional tennis player. In her career, she won over 200 tournament matches, including the Japan Open four times. In 1994, she was ranked in the top-ten women players in the world. In 1992, the WTA awarded her the "Most Improved Player Of The Year" and the Japan Men's Fashion Association named her "Most Fashionable." After playing in her second Olympic Games, she announced her retirement on 24 September 1996. Yet, she came back on court nearly 12 years later, announcing an unexpected comeback in April 2008. After the comeback, she has won several ITF titles before reaching her first WTA Tour title at the 2009 Hansol Korea Open in Seoul, thus becoming the second-oldest player in the Open era, after Billie Jean King, to win a singles title on the WTA Tour.

[edit] Early career

Born in Kyoto, Japan, Date started playing tennis when she was 7 years old. By the age of 14, she reached the semi-finals in the All-Japan Junior Under-14 championship. In next year, she won the 3rd place in the Japanese National Junior High School Tennis Championship.

In 1986, while attending Sonoda-Joshi High School, she won the All-Japan Junior Under-16 Championship in doubles. In 1987, she reached the semi-finals in the All-Japan Tennis Championship.

In 1988, she won the Invitational All-Japan Junior Indoor Championship (for both women single and doubles), the Wimbledon Junior Championship (for singles), the Japanese National High School Athlete Meet (for singles and doubles), the Japanese All-Japan Junior Tennis Tournament Under-18 (for singles and doubles), and the International Women Circuit, and Masters. She made her Grand Slam debut at the 1989 French Open, losing in the second round.

[edit] Professional career

Date began 1990 by reaching the fourth round at the Australian Open, defeated in straight sets by fourth seed Helena Sukova.

In 1991, she was runner-up of Virginia Slim Of Los Angeles Tournament, defeating Gabriela Sabatini, but losing to Monica Seles in the finals.

In 1992, Date defeated Arantxa Sánchez Vicario in the Toray Pan-Pacific Open and reached the semi-finals. That year she also won the Japan Open, reached the semi-finals in the Mizuno World Ladies Open, and the quarter-finals in the Lipton Championship and the Grand Slam, Roland Garros. She also participated in the Barcelona Olympics. She also had her best Grand Slam doubles result, reaching the QF of the Australian Open doubles championships, partnering Australian Michelle Jaggard-Lai.

In 1993, she again won the Japan Open. She was runner-up in the Asia Women's Open and the Nichiray Ladies Cup. She reached the semi-finals in the Lipton Championships defeating Mary Joe Fernandez. In the US Open, she reached the quarter-finals.

In 1994, she won her third consecutive Japan Open. She won the gold medal in Hiroshima Asia competition. She reached the semi-finals of the Australian Open (first time from Japan in over two decades, lost to Steffi Graf) and the Virginia Slims Championships.

In 1995, she won the Toray PPO, and was runner-up in the Lipton Championship and the Japan Open. She reached the semi-finals in the Grand Slam, Roland Garros (lost to Arantxa Sánchez Vicario), and the quarter-finals at Wimbledon (lost to Jana Novotná). Date also reached her career high of World Number 4 in 1995.

In 1996, she reached her 200th win in tournament play. She also won both singles and doubles in the Japan Open. In the Federation Cup, she defeated Steffi Graf for the first time. Date reached the semi-final at Wimbledon, battling Graf over two days. Trailing 0–4 in the first set, she stormed back in the second set. Although the chair umpire initially refused to call off the match due to darkness despite Graf's plea, he changed his mind and postponed the final set until the next day. Graf swiftly won that and her seventh title there. Date also won a major tournament in San Diego and reached the quarter-finals in the 1996 Summer Olympic Games. She held her last match at the 2nd round of WTA Tour Championships; she lost to Martina Hingis 1–6, 2–6.

[edit] Comeback

Date holding aloft the trophy at the Tokyo Ariake International Ladies Open.

[edit] 2008

On 6 April 2008, nearly 12 years after retiring, Date announced she would return to the women's professional tour at the age of 37.[1]

Date qualified for a 50k ITF event in Gifu, Japan. In the first round, she played compatriot and World Number 183 Rika Fujiwara. In only her 4th match on the tour for 11 years, Date won 2-6 6-4 6-4. At the quarter-final stage, Date came up against World Number 80 and fellow Japanese Aiko Nakamura, whom she beat 7-6(7) 4-6 6-3. This marked her first Top 100 win of her comeback. In her semi-final match, she defeated Number 3 seed Melanie South 7-6 (7-5) 6-3. However, in the final, she was defeated by Tamarine Tanasugarn of Thailand in three sets, 6-4 5-7 2-6. She successfully won the doubles title at that tournament with teenage and fellow Japanese partner Kurumi Nara, defeating Melanie South and Nicole Thyssen in a match tie-breaker, 6-1 6-7 (6-8) [10-7].

Kimiko's next event was another 50k ITF event in Fukuoka, Japan. She defeated both Nicole Kriz and Rika Fujiwara to reach the quarter finals where she lost to Aiko Nakamura in straight sets, 6-2 6-2. She then defeated Shiho Hisamatsu and Zhou Yi-Miao to reach the quarter-final where she lost to Tomoko Yonemura in straight sets, 6-2 6-2, in another tournament in Japan, a 50k event in Kurume. On 15 June 2008, she defeated Shiho Akita 6-3, 6-2 to win the Tokyo Ariake International Ladies Open for her first post-comeback championship. Her second post-comeback championship came over a month after, as on 20 July, she won a 25k ITF event in Miyazaki, Japan, defeating Kyung-Yee Chae in the final, 6-3 6-2. On 3 August she won the 25k ITF event in Obihiro, Japan. In the final she beat Suchanun Viratprasert 6-3, 7-6.

Date made her WTA Tour comeback at the Tier I event in Tokyo, Japan, where she has been awarded a wildcard into the qualifying tournament. She won through to the final round of qualifying after defeating Mari Tanaka of Japan and Australian Casey Dellacqua (the 5th seed in the qualifying competition). Both of these victories came in tight three-set matches. She lost in the final round to Aleksandra Wozniak of Canada in straight sets, 6-1 6-1. Along with fellow Japanese Rika Fujiwara, Kimiko, also competed in Doubles, as WC entrant. However, they lost in 3 tight sets 6-3, 3-6, 10-8 tiebreak in the 1st round. Kimiko was in the main draw for the AIG Japan Open Tennis Championships but lost in the first round to Shahar Pe'er.

In November, Date competed at the All-Japan Tennis Championship, her first appearance there in 16 years. Date won both the Singles and Doubles titles.

[edit] 2009

Date received a wild card entrant to the main draw of the 2009 ASB Classic in Auckland; it was her first tournament outside of Japan since November 1996. Later in January, Date qualified for the Australian Open and met Kaia Kanepi in the first round, where she lost a close match, battling a tough three-setter before losing 4-6, 6-4, 6-8^[1].

Kimiko then played in the main draw of the international event in Pattaya City, Thailand. In the first round, she was defeated by the 8th-seeded Slovak Magdalena Rybarikova in three sets, 2-6 6-4 4-6. She then reached the quarter-finals of an ITF event in Clearwater, Florida, beating Lauren Embree of the USA and fellow Japanese player Aiko Nakamura before losing to third-seeded Slovak Jarmila Groth in three sets, 6-3 5-7 5-7. She then played at a $25,000 ITF event in Hammond, Louisana where she breezed past qualifier Heidi El Tabakh 6-2 6-0. She then beat American Lauren Albanese in the round of 16 for a place in the quarter-finals where she lost to qualifier Lindsay Lee-Waters in three sets. Date moved onto the $75,000 ITF in Monzon Spain, her first European event since July 1996. Seeded Sixth, victories over Spaniard Eva Fernandez-Bruges and Croat Ana Vrljic took her to the quarter finals. In the quarter finals she beat British Top Seed Elena Baltacha 5-7 6-4 7-6 (7-4), she followed that win by beating Arantxa Parra Santonja 6-4 7-5 to reach the final. In the final Date earned a 7-5 6-2 victory over Romanian qualifier Alexandra Dulgheru to claim the biggest title of her comeback that far.^[2]

Date was awarded a wildcard entry to the 2009 Wimbledon Championships. This was her first competition at Wimbledon in 13 years. In the first round she lost to 9th seed Caroline Wozniacki 7-5 3-6 1-6, with her performance in the second and third sets diminished due to an injury.

In the 2009 Guangzhou International Women's Open, Date, partnering Sun Tiantian, reached her first WTA tour final since she has come back to the WTA tour, but lost after a tight match 6-3 2-6 8-10.

At the 2009 Hansol Korea Open in Seoul, she won her first WTA Tour level match after the return, against Lee Ye-Ra, and came up with a second victory right after over Alisa Kleybanova, coming back from a set and 5-2 down. In the quarterfinals Kimiko defeated top seed Daniela Hantuchova in three sets lasting over two and a half hours. Date Krumm prevailed with the score 7-6(3) 4-6 6-4. In the semifinals she defeated defending champion Maria Kirilenko 3-6 6-2 6-4. In the final, which was held one day before her 39th birthday, Kimiko Date Krumm defeated Anabel Medina Garrigues 6-3, 6-3 to win her first WTA Tour title since her comeback. Thus, she became the second-oldest player in the Open era to win a singles title on the WTA Tour, after Billie Jean King, who won Birmingham in 1983, aged 39 years, 7 months and 23 days.

Date-Krumm then received a wildcard to play at the inaugural 2009 Commonwealth Bank Tournament of Champions, a year-end championships, held in Bali, Indonesia. She was in Group C, along with Yanina Wickmayer and Anabel Medina Garrigues. She lost her first match against Wickmayer by a close 6(5)-7, 2-6, but she won her second match against Medina Garrigues by 6-4, 6-3. Due to Wickmayer's ban from the sport for one year, Date-Krumm made the semifinals but lost to top seed Marion Bartoli.

[edit] Titles (8)

[edit] Singles (8)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent in Final	Score in Final
1.	6 April 1992	Tokyo, Japan (Japan Open)	Hard	Sabine Appelmans	7–5, 3–6, 6–3
2.	5 April 1993	Tokyo, Japan (Japan Open)	Hard	Stephanie Rottier	6–1, 6–3
3.	10 January 1994	Sydney, Australia	Hard	Mary Joe Fernandez	6–4, 6–2
4.	4 April 1994	Tokyo, Japan (Japan Open)	Hard	Amy Frazier	7–5, 6–0
5.	30 January 1995	Tokyo, Japan (Pan Pacific)	Carpet (I)	Lindsay Davenport	6–1, 6–2
6.	15 April 1996	Tokyo, Japan (Japan Open)	Hard	Amy Frazier	6–4, 7–5
7.	19 August 1996	San Diego, USA	Hard	Arantxa Sánchez Vicario	3–6, 6–3, 6–0
8.	27 September 2009	Seoul, South Korea	Hard	Anabel Medina Garrigues	6–3, 6–3

[edit] Doubles (1)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponent in the final	Score
1.	21 April 1996	Tokyo, Japan (Japan Open)	Hard	Ai Sugiyama	Amy Frazier Kimberly Po	7–6(6), 6–7(6), 6–3

[edit] Runner-ups (8)

[edit] Singles (6)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent in Final	Score in Final
1.	12 August 1991	Manhattan Beach, USA	Hard	Monica Seles	6–3, 6–2
2.	8 February 1993	Osaka, Japan	Carpet (I)	Jana Novotná	6–1, 6–3
3.	20 September 1993	Tokyo, Japan (Nichirei International)	Hard	Amanda Coetzer	6–3, 6–2
4.	25 March 1995	Key Biscayne, USA	Hard	Steffi Graf	6–1, 6–4
5.	10 April 1995	Tokyo, Japan (Japan Open)	Hard	Amy Frazier	7–6(5), 7–5
6.	22 May 1995	Strasbourg, France	Clay	Lindsay Davenport	3–6, 6–1, 6–2

[edit] Doubles (2)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponent in the final	Score
1.	6 April 1992	Tokyo, Japan (Japan Open)	Hard	Stephanie Rehe	Amy Frazier Rika Hiraki	5–7, 7–6(5), 6–0
2.	14 September 2009	Guangzhou, China	Hard	Sun Tiantian	Olga Govortsova Tatiana Poutchek	3–6, 6–2, [10-8]

[edit] Grand Slam singles performance timeline

[edit] Commercials

In 1997, she starred in the first commercial for the hybrid car, Toyota Prius and was the first celebrity owner of one.

[edit] Personal life

Kimiko Date lives in Tokyo and is married to German motor racing driver Michael Krumm.

[edit] Sources

[edit] External links

• Kimiko Date profile on the WTA Tour's official website
• Kimiko Date Krumm at the International Tennis Federation
• Kimiko Date Krumm at the Fed Cup