Just a day shy of her 40th birthday Kimiko Date Krumm of Japan sent Maria Sharapova packing in the first round match featuring former champions at the Toray Pan Pacific Open.
The 1995 Tokyo winner Date Krumm, a wild card this year, edged the first set 7-5, then lost three straight games in the second set and never recovered to lose it, while in the decider the home favorite managed to come back and even though twice Tokyo champion Sharapova had a 3-2, 40-0 lead, the momentum shifted to the veteran’s advantage who won 17 of 21 points since that moment. Final score: 7-5 3-6 6-3.
With this victory Date Krumm has scored five Top 20 wins in 2010, over Virginie Razzano, Nadia Petrova, Dinara Safina, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, and now world No.15 Sharapova, who was seeded 12th and defending her title at the Toray Pan Pacific Open.
In the second round, the world No.67 Date Krumm will play Daniela Hantuchova, who advanced with a 6-3 6-3 victory over Angelique Kerber. (source: Sony Ericsson WTA Tour, photo: © Neal Trousdale)
These days I have been very busy with university and I didn’t follow tennis at all, so this evening I opened the blog and this is the first news that I read… Poor Masha!! I can only think that the service was again decisive…
Francesca, welcome back. 🙂 I checked a list of year-end Bali contestants and when I saw Masha I realized how many steps to get back to the old Masha she has to make.
http://www.tennisforum.com/showthread.php?p=18583136
Marija, I think this list is quite explicit on the current situation… This morning I read an article according to which Venus’s injury would prevent her to continue the season and then she could not compete in Doha, do you have any news??
Francesca, nothing official about her withdrawal from the rest of the season, but she is on crutches now, look at these recent pics:
http://photo.wenn.com/index.php?action=quicksearch&ppid=126005&version=int
And there’s also a forum thread regarding her knee injury here: http://www.tennisforum.com/showthread.php?t=421274