Wk.38- A Date with History, eh?

We're currently in one of those little pockets in the WTA schedule where all sorts of interesting results occur, but very few people pay attention to them. (In other words, the events taking place over the past couple of weeks are the ones that the likes of TV talkers Pam Shriver and her ilk -- isn't that a great word that implies so much but doesn't technically "insult" anyone? -- will later pretty much consider having "never happened" since they weren't paying attention when they actually did.)

As a result, when a whole slew of top players decide the champion in this coming week's tour event in Tokyo, many people will believe that it'll be the first event held since Serena Williams came up with an off-the-top-of-her-head recipe involving a tennis ball and a dash of ire, Kim Clijsters won the U.S. Open and Justine Henin announced her forthcoming return to the sport. But it won't be the case no matter how rightly they may believe it to be so.

Unfortunately, those people will probably never know about what Kimiko Date-Krumm just accomplished in Seoul.


AP

While Kim Clijsters' successful comeback has been of the "immediate splash variety," Date-Krumm's has been an exponentially growing one. When she announced her return more than a year ago at age 37 after a dozen years in retirement, it initially included only appearances in ITF challengers in Japan. It seemed as if it would be a minor sideshow tour as Date-Krumm made token "final" appearances in front of her longtime fans.

Somewhere along the line, things changed.

As the 1994 Australian Open semifinalist had some success, she expanded her scope to include challenger events outside her native country. Next came WTA events, and forays into slam qualifying tournaments as she appeared in places she hadn't been spied on the court since Bill Clinton was in the White House. A week ago, she pushed the #1-seeded Anabel Medina-Garrigues to three sets in the 1st Round in Guangzhou, then reached the doubles final, her first tour final of any kind since 1996.

Last week in Seoul, Date-Krumm overcame match point in her 2nd Round match to follow up her first main draw tour win in her comeback with another... then proceded to defeat the tournament's #1-seed (Daniela Hantuchova) and defending champion (Maria Kirilenko) to reach her first tour singles final in thirteen years. There she met Medina-Garrigues once again, and handed her her proverbial head on a platter in a 6-3/6-3 win to claim the eighth WTA singles crown in her career, but her first since she won in San Diego just before the start of the 1996 U.S. Open.

Date-Krumm, who turns 39 on Monday the 28th, is the second-oldest tour singles champ in the Open era, behind only Billie Jean King, who won in Birmingham in 1983 at just under 39 years and eight months of age. But she DID win a tour event at an older age than Martina Navratilova (37 in '94)... and when you do that it's something to behold. She also obliterated the tour record for the longest span of time between championships, besting previous long-timer Barbara Schett's feat (1992 & '01) by more than four years.

Remember, while Seoul isn't Flushing Meadows, Date-Krumm was away from the game for TWELVE years, not two, like you-know-who. She's a year from forty, too, rather in what would normally be the "prime" years of her tennis career. Still, when Clijsters won the Open, she was lavished with praise based mostly on the overblown "mother" issue... even though many track athletes, basketball players and other female sports stars have returned from motherhood to compete at the top levels of their chosen sport -- providing more than enough evidence that it wasn't the "most monumental feat in sports history" that is was made out to be. I still can't figure out the reason why so much was said about how Clijsters should be essentially "worshipped" for having a child and returning to an athletic career... oh, wait. Yes, I do. It was because KIM did it.

Some things never change, I suppose. (I guess we'll find out in 2010.)

Meanwhile, Date-Krumm's feat will likely be ignored by the sporting masses. It's too bad. Sometimes people don't know what they're missing. Apparently, not even Kimiko.

Thankfully, though, she figured it out while she could still do something about it.

*WEEK 38 CHAMPIONS*

SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA (Int'l $220K/hard indoor)
S: Kimiko Date-Krumm def. Anabel Medina-Garrigues 6-3/6-3
D: Chan/Spears d. Ca.Gullickson/Kriz

TASHKENT, UZBEKISTAN (Int'l $220K/hard outdoor)
S: Shahar Peer d. Akgul Amanmuradova 6-3/6-4
D: Govortsova/Poutchek d. Diatchenko/Dzehalevich


PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Kimiko Date-Krumm/JPN
...her Seoul win was her eighth career title, but only her third outside of Japan. She's got a wild card into the Tokyo event this coming week (in the city where she won five of her WTA titles), assuming she decides to make the trip after her celebratory weekend. Hopefully, she will. It'll give her home nation fans a great opportunity to offer their congratulations.
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RISERS: Shahar Peer/ISR & Yaroslava Shvedova/KAZ
...there was a three-year gap between Peer's third and fourth career WTA singles titles, but just a week between #4 and #5. One weekend after taking Guangzhou, she claimed the Tashkent title with wins over Olga Govortsova and former tournament finalist Akgul Amanmuradova in the final. Meanwhile, 22-year old Shvedova (even though she was a first-time WTA title-winner two seasons ago in Bangalore) made her name known to many for the first time by upsetting Jelena Jankovic in the U.S. Open last month. She followed up with a SF result in Tashkent last week.
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SURPRISES: Olga Govortsova/Tathiana Poutchek, BLR/BLR
...a week after winning the doubles title in Guangzhou, the Belarusian pair won another in Tashkent. Govortsova also reached the singles SF, notching a win over Vesna Manasieva along the way.
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VETERAN: Akgul Amanmuradova/UZB
...the 6-foot-3, 25-year old Tashkent native reached her second career final (also in Tashkent in '05) in her hometown tournament this weekend. Four years ago, she lost the final to Michaella Krajicek, while this time it was to Shahar Peer. Still, wins over Ekaterina Bychkova, Stefanie Voegele and Yaroslava Shvedova made for a very successful week.
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FRESH FACE: Chang Kai-Chen/TPE
...the Taiwanese teenager has been one of the revelations of the late summer/early fall. She qualified at the U.S. Open, then upset Kaia Kanepi in the 1st Round. Last week, she made it through qualifying in Seoul and got a main draw win over Viktoriya Kutuzova. At the end of the week, she won two more matches to qualify for the Week 39 Tokyo event, getting wins over Galina Voskoboeva and Alberta Brianti, then got an early 1st Round win over... you guessed it, Kaia Kanepi once again. Consider the circle complete (and Kanepi looking over her shoulder at every tournament she enters the rest of '09).
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DOWN: Agnes Szavay/HUN
...hmmm, is the "old" Szavay back? After finally seeming to right herself earlier this season, her results in recent weeks have been more reminiscent of her atrocious string of early-out losses last season. Case in point: Tokyo will mostly be played during the upcoming week, but Agnes is ALREADY out of the event, having lost an early 1st Round match to Gisela Dulko 6-3/6-0.
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ITF PLAYER: Arantxa Parra-Santonja/ESP
...the Spaniard won a $100K challenger in Saint Malo, France while reeling off a string of wins over Edina Gallovits, Sharon Fichman, Polona Hercog, Klara Zakopalova and, in the final, Alexandra Dulgheru 6-4/6-3.
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1. Seoul Final - Date-Krumm d. Medina-Garrigues
...6-3/6-3. After taking AMG to three sets and losing last week, Date-Krumm "showed her what 'fer" in Korea. A title her would have been #10 in Medina-Garrigues' career, so Anna Smashnova STILL stands alone on that list of double-digit title-winners without a slam QF appearance.
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2. Seoul Doubles Final - Chan/Spears d. Ca.Gullickson/Kriz
...6-3/6-4. Gullickson subbed for an injured Spears with Travis Parrott in the U.S. Open Mixed draw and ended up winning a grand slam crown. Should this be considered "Abigail's revenge?"
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3. Seoul 2nd Rd - Date-Krumm d. Kleybanova
...4-6/7-6/6-3. Down 6-4/5-2 and a match point at 5-3, Kimiko surely didn't think that she'd be getting a WTA title for her birthday.
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4. Seoul QF - Date-Krumm d. Hantuchova 7-6/4-6/4-6
Seoul SF - Date-Krumm d. Kirilenko 3-6/6-2/6-4
... From a match point down in the 2nd Round, then by defeating the #1 seeded-Hantuchova and defending champ Kirilenko, Date-Krumm won't have to hear anyone saying she traveled an easy path to her first WTA title in thirteen years.
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5. Tashkent Final - Peer d. Amanmuradova
...6-3/6-4. At this rate, The Corporal's ranking should put her in prime position to claim a right to play in Dubai in '10. Tick, tock. Tick, tock.
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HM- Tokyo Q2 - Craybas d. Oudin
...6-2/6-2. Let the games begin. And the pressure build.
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**OLDEST WTA SINGLES CHAMPIONS**
Billie Jean King - 39 years, 7 months, 23 days - 1983 Birmingham
KIMIKO DATE-KRUMM - 38 YEARS, 11 MONTHS, 30 DAYS - 2009 SEOUL
Martina Navratilova - 37 years, 4 months, 2 days - 1994 Paris (Indoors)

**LONGEST SPAN BETWEEN WTA SINGLES TITLES**
13 YEARS, 1 MONTH - KIMIKO DATE-KRUMM, 1996 SAN DIEGO-to-2009 SEOUL
8 years, 9 months - Barbara Schett, 1992 Schenectady-to-2001 Antwerp
7 years, 7 months - Elena Likhovtseva, 1997 Gold Coast-to-2004 Forest Hills

**LOW-RANKED 2009 FINALISTS**
NR - Kim Clijsters, BEL (September, US Open - W)
#201 - Alexandra Dulgheru, ROU (May, Warsaw - W)
#155 - KIMIKO DATE-KRUMM, JPN (SEPTEMBER, SEOUL - W)
#126 - Sania Mirza, IND (February, Pattaya - L)
#113 - AKGUL AMANMURADOVA, UZB (SEPTEMBER, TASHKENT - L)

**CONSECUTIVE 2009 WTA TITLES**
[2]
Elena Dementieva, RUS (January - Auckland/Sydney)
Venus Williams, USA (February - Dubai/Acapulco)
Dinara Safina, RUS (May - Rome/Madrid)
Flavia Pennetta, ITA (July/August - Palermo/Los Angeles)
SHAHAR PEER, ISR (SEPTEMBER - GUANGZHOU/TASHKENT)

**LONG 2009 WTA WIN STREAKS**
16...Dinara Safina (May-June)
15...Elena Dementieva (January)
15...Flavia Pennetta (July-August)
14...Venus Williams (February-April)
11...Caroline Wozniacki (August-September)
10...SHAHAR PEER (SEPTEMBER-current)
10...Serena Williams (January-February)
10...Victoria Azarenka (February-March)





TOKYO, JAPAN (Premier+ $2m/hard court outdoor)
08 Final: Safina d. Kuznetsova
09 Top Seeds: Safina/V.Williams
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=QF=
Sharapova d. Safina
Wozniacki d. Kuznetsova
Dementieva d. Azarenka
V.Williams d. Lisicki
=SF=
Wozniacki d. Sharapova
Dementieva d. V.Williams
=FINAL=
Dementieva d. Wozniacki

...finally, with all these names involved. the sports world will perk up and take notice. Well, at least a little. Sharapova has always performed well in Asia, and a win in an event of this size might be just what the doctor (ooh, maybe I shouldn't go THERE, huh?) ordered if she's to end her '09 in good form and re-join the suddenly crowded list of stars who'll be competing for slam titles in 2010.

This will be Ai Sugiyama's final event, as she's set to retire after the tournament. Well, that is, unless she follows countrywoman Date-Krumm's lead and decides to return to action when SHE'S 37. So, I guess this might be the last time we'll see Ai until, oh, about 2012.

All for now.



THIS WEEK: The first edition of the "Top 25 Players of the Decade" series