Francesca Schiavone defeats Kimiko Date Krumm in Tokyo
Francesca Schiavone has finally brought Kimiko Date Krumm’s dream Pan Pacific Open run to an end, defeating the 40-year-old 6-3, 6-3 in the third round.
The Japanese veteran had opened her account in Tokyo with victory over defending champion and former world No. 1 Maria Sharapova, before celebrating her 40th birthday with a 2-6, 6-0, 4-0 (retired) win against Daniela Hantuchova in the second round.
Date Krumm’s victory against Sharapova follows her two wins this year against another former top-ranked player in Dinara Safina (admittedly struggling for form after returning from a back injury) in the first round of the French Open and then at Stanford during July.
Date Krumm reached a career-best ranking of world No. 4 in 1995, retired at the age of 26 the next year and returned to tennis in 2008 after 12 years away from the game, breaking back into the top 100 last year and winning the WTA Tour title in Seoul last September to become the second-oldest Tour singles title winner of the Open era (behind Billie Jean King).
She was unable to defend that title last week, losing in three sets to eighth seed Agnes Szavay in the quarter-finals.
French Open champion Schiavone moves through to the quarterfinals along with Wimbledon and US Open runner-up Vera Zvonareva, who will now play Russian counterpart and seventh seed Elena Dementieva for a place in the final four.
Victoria Azarenka (returning for her first tournament since that dramatic on-court collapse at the US Open) is also through to the quarters, along with American qualifier Coco Vandeweghe and the ever consistent Agnieszka Radwanska.
Also winning through to the quarters today was world No. 2 Caroline Wozniacki, who used her trademark consistency to her advantage against a more error-prone Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (whose seven double faults – some at critical moments in the match – didn’t help her cause). Wozniacki won the match 6-1, 6-2 in one hour and 10 minutes.
The news wasn’t so good for Jelena Jankovic, however, with the third seed defeated 4-6, 4-6 in her third-round match against Kaia Kanepi. That victory earns the Estonian a quarter-final match against Schiavone.
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