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.
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