Japanese veteran Kimiko Date-Krumm continued her incredible run of form to make the final of the Hansol-Korea Open yesterday just two days shy of her 39th birthday.
Date-Krumm, who reached world No. 4 in 1995 before retiring a year later after finding the pressure of life on tour too much, beat defending champion Maria Kirilenko of Russia in a 3-6, 6-2, 6-4 semi-final.
If she goes on to clinch the final against Anabel Medina Garrigues, she will become the second-oldest player in the Open era to win a singles title on the WTA Tour, after Billie Jean King, who won Birmingham in 1983 aged 39 and seven months.
Since returning to tennis last year, Date-Krumm had a miserable 0-8 record in main draws until the Korea Open this week, where she has now won three times, including a shock victory over No.1 seed Daniela Hantuchova.
Against 22-year-old Kirilenko, she showed age does not matter, dominating the Russian in the second set and most of the third.
She next meets Spain’s Medina Garrigues, who also came from a set down to beat Germany’s Anna-Lena Groenefeld 2-6, 6-3, 6-1.
■OPEN DE MOSELLE
AP, METZ, FRANCE
Top-seeded Gael Monfils reached the Open de Moselle semi-finals when Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia injured his right ankle and retired on Friday.
Monfils was leading the quarter-final match 6-1, 4-2 when Tipsarevic quit.
Next up will be fellow Frenchman Richard Gasquet, who rallied to beat fourth-seeded Philipp Petzschner of Germany 6-7 (2/7), 6-1, 6-3.
Petzschner served 16 aces, but Gasquet managed to break him five times.
Paul-Henri Mathieu was the third Frenchman to advance, reaching the semi-finals for a second consecutive year with a 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 win over seventh-seeded Andreas Beck of Germany.
The third-seeded Mathieu hit 18 aces and converted three break points.
Mathieu, looking for his second final of the year after losing to Nikolay Davydenko in Hamburg, will next face second-seeded Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany, who thrashed Russia’s Evgeny Korolev 6-1, 6-3.
Four-time NBA all-star DeMarcus Cousins arrived in Taiwan with his family early yesterday to finish his renewed contract with the Taiwan Beer Leopards in the T1 League. Cousins initially played a four-game contract with the Leopards in January. On March 18, the Taoyuan-based team announced that Cousins had renewed his contract. “Hi what’s up Leopard fans, I’m back. I’m excited to be back and can’t wait to join the team,” Cousins said in a video posted on the Leopard’s Facebook page. “Most of all, can’t wait to see you guys, the fans, next weekend. So make sure you come out and support the Beer
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
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