The amazing story of Kimiko Date-Krumm has seen the addition of another chapter in Stanford on Tuesday as the 44-year-old WTA veteran upset Sabine Lisicki to make the second round of the 2015 Bank of the West Classic.
Having fought her way through qualifying, Date-Krumm managed to overcome a dropped first set against Lisicki, rallying from 0-3 in the second set before winning a very close second-set tiebreak.
The intense three-setter ended in the most dramatic way possible as a netcord in Date-Krumm’s favour sealed the deal for the Japanese, sending Lisicki off to Toronto without a win on American hardcourt under her belt.
Another German fared up much better as Angelique Kerber was up against Daria Gavrilova in the first night match and despite the young Australian’s best efforts, the German made a smooth transition into the second round.
There was plenty of quality tennis during the day session as well, as fans got to watch American Varvara Lepchenko pull through a very close three-set encounter against Mirjana Lucic-Baroni.
Afterwards, it was time for the all-Ukranian duel between Elina Svitolina and tennis mom Kateryna Bondarenko. Bondarenko had fought her way through the qualifying stages and looked to be well on her way of pulling an upset after taking the first set. Svitolina finally forced herself into the match, edging out a three-set win over the qualifier.
The final day session match saw Ajla Tomljanovic pull out an impressive win over Russia’s Vitalia Diatchenko. After dropping a close first-set, Tomljanovic won twelve consecutive games to secure her spot in the tournament’s second round.
The soon-to-be Australian citizen will be facing off with her good friend Madison Keys on Wednesday, since both big-hitting ladies are due to play the first night session match. Originally, Agnieszka Radwanska was scheduled to kick off her Bank of the West Classic campaign tomorrow, the #2 seed requested an additional day of rest to give an injury time to heal though.
” Agnieszka Radwanska was scheduled to kick off her Bank of the West Classic campaign tomorrow, the #2 seed requested an additional day of rest to give an injury time to heal though. -”
i did not know this was possible… depends on the tournament and/or situations i guess?
Bondarenka is quite impressive since coming back. Beating Venus last time and almost-an-upset performance of Svitolina really show how much talent she has. Good to see her back!!:)
Date-Krumm —– > Iron lady of tennis
Bondarenko would have deserved to win. That match was probably the best so far. They were both fighting and hitting very hard. Some pretty good rallies. Kateryna was leading 5/3 in the third but there was a lot of tension with her husband/coach. Umpire, Juan Zhang , was completely off as usual. Strangely, at 5 all, her husband brought her daughter who obviously started to cry. He went away in the wrong direction and was actually as close as possible from Kateryna! She lost the last two games…
Vitalia Diatchenko has a crazy two-handed forehand. She puts her left palm on top of her right palm. I have never seen such shot before. Very different from Bartoli forehand. She hits very hard that forehand. https://twitter.com/gregoiregentil/status/629088153131855872 She was doing pretty well and then she got a double bagel…