Kimiko Date Krumm pulled off a hard-won victory in the quarter-finals of the Japan Women’s Open tennis tournament yesterday, upsetting defending champion Samantha Stosur in a final-set tie-break.
The 40-year-old Japanese, who won the singles title four times in the 1990s, took 2 hours, 34 minutes to beat the Australian top seed 5-7, 6-3, 7-6 (7/4).
Stosur, 26, claimed her first career WTA title last year in Japan, and added another at Charleston this season, before reaching her first career Grand Slam final at the French Open.
PHOTO: AFP
In today’s semi-finals, Date Krumm will take on third seed Shahar Peer of Israel, who trounced seventh seed Iveta Benesova of the Czech Republic 6-2, 6-0.
The other semi-final match will be played between veteran Thai ace Tamarine Tanasugarn and 2006 champion Marion Bartoli of France.
Tamarine, the runner-up in 2001 and the doubles champion with Maria Sharapova in 2003, outclassed Taiwan’s Chang Kai-chen 6-3, 2-6, 6-4.
PHOTO: AFP
Bartoli, the second seed, overwhelmed 2002 champion Jill Craybas of the US 6-1, 6-2.
There was more bad news for Taiwanese fans in the doubles as Shuko Aoyama and Rika Fujiwara of Japan beat No. 2 seeds Chan Chin-wei of Taiwan and Natalie Grandin of South Africa 6-3, 6-4.
SHANGHAI MASTERS
PHOTO: AFP
AFP, SHANGHAI
British world No. 4 Andy Murray hammered 12th seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 6-2, 6-2 yesterday to reach the semi-finals of the Shanghai Masters, while second seed Novak Djokovic earned a ninth straight match win in China as the two-time Beijing champion advanced over Spain’s Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 6-2, 6-3.
Djokovic remains the highest seed still in the field after Nadal’s third-round loss on Thursday to Austria’s Jurgen Melzer.
Juan Monaco of Argentina, defeated Melzer 6-7 (6), 7-5, 6-2 yesterday.
Murray will face Monaco next.
The Scot’s game was looking bleak a week ago in Beijing when he lost in the quarter-finals and remained without a place in next month’s eight-man World Tour Finals in London.
However, that immediate problem was solved with Murray’s third-round win on Thursday against another French opponent in Jeremy Chardy, which proved to be just a warm-up for the damage inflicted on Tsonga, the 2008 Australian Open finalist.
“It was nice today, good conditions, there was no wind,” said Murray, playing under the open stadium roof after four days of rain.
“The sun had gone as well. Normally, those are the two things that make playing outdoors a little bit trickier,” he said. “I got used to the conditions pretty quickly. It was a little bit different when the roof’s closed, but it didn’t really affect me today.”
Murray blasted through in 54 minutes without facing a break point and getting past the Tsonga serve on four occasions. The Scot finished his rout as the frustrated Frenchman sailed a return long over the baseline.
The result was the seventh loss in eight recent meetings with a top 10 opponent for Tsonga, struggling with form after returning only last week in Tokyo after a knee problem which kept him off the summer hardcourt circuit.
“I got off to a good start, which is important against him,” said Murray, still looking for a second title of the year after winning in Toronto.
“He’s a really good frontrunner but he struggled a little bit on his serve,” Murray said. “He wasn’t serving as big as usual, so I managed to get into a lot of the return games.”
Third seed Roger Federer was due to play Sweden’s Robin Soderling, the No. 5 seed in yesterday’s last match.
Additional reporting by staff writer
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