Date-Krumm shatters defending champion Sharapova in first round at Tokyo
On September 27, one day before her 40th birthday, Japanese professional tennis player Kimiko Date-Krumm shocked and awed fans with an entirely unexpected defeat of the defending champion for the Toray Pan Pacific Open, Maria Sharapova. Date closed
the game in three sets with a final score of 7-5, 3-6, 6-3.
Kimiko Date-Krumm turned pro in 1989, and retired in 1996. She was ranked World Number 4 in the WTA top ten women players list. She made her comeback in 2008, at the age of 37. After this re-arrival on the tennis court, Date Krumm has won many ITF titles,
to add to this, she won her 8th WTA tour title last year at the 2009 Hansol Korea Open in Seoul, making her the defending champion this year.
To add to this, her victory at the Korea Open also makes her the second-oldest player of the Open Era to win a WTA singles title, with the oldest player being Billie Jean King.
After her comeback, Date-Krumm has performed surprisingly well, climbing the WTA charts to reach the top 50 players.
23-year old Russian Maria Sharapova, on the other hand, is the former World Number 1, with a current ranking of Number 15.She turned pro in the year 2001, and since then, has won a total of 22 WTA titles, as well as three Grand Slam tournaments (every Major
except the French Open). Sharapova holds a singles win rate of 81%, with 368 victories to 88 losses. In addition to this, Sharapova won the title at the 2009 Toray Pan Pacific Open, and was the defending champion this year.
While Sharapova has conquered three Majors, and has made it to the semi final of the French Open (the only Grand Slam tournament she has yet to win), Date-Krumm has only managed to reach the semi finals of the Australian Open, the French Open and Wimbledon.
She has reached the quarter finals of the US Open tournament two years in a row, in 1993 and 1994.
Therefore, given the circumstances, this turn of events came as a great surprise to fans, critics and probably the players as well. A day before her 40th birthday, Kimiko Dat-Krumm managed to defeat the 12th seed Maria Sharapova in
a three-set match at the 2010 Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo.
Kimiko Date-Krumm is a wild card at the tournament – her own points and ranking were not enough to qualify her for this tournament, so she was granted entry into the tournament in order to compete. Before this tournament, she competed in the US Open, receiving
direct entry but fell to Svetlana Kuznetsova in the first round.
Her next tournament was the 2010 Hansol Korea Open, where she lost to Agnes Szavay. After these tournaments, she accepted wild card entry into the Toray Pan Pacific Open.
Sharapova’s game was faulty on Monday, with the Russian player serving 11 double faults. She also admitted that she had trouble reacting to her new opponent’s tricky style of play, saying, “Kimiko was a new opponent for me, so I had to try and figure her
out. She stays low and likes the ball hit hard at her, and then she steps in and changes direction. She did that really well”.
Sharapova also added that her own standard of play was subpar, commenting, “I had my ups and downs but couldn't take control when I was up”.
Kimiko Date-Krumm’s next match is on her 40th birthday, she will compete with World Number 29 Daniela Hantuchova in the second round of the Toray Pan Pacific Open.
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