Japanese veteran Kimiko Date-Krumm yesterday became the oldest winner of a WTA event since Billie Jean King in 1983 by claiming the Korea Open title.
Date-Krumm upset Spain’s second seed Anabel Medina Garrigues 6-3, 6-3 for a famous victory.
She achieved the feat aged 38 years, 11 months and 30 days and is the oldest winner since King won in Birmingham in 1983 when she was 39 years, seven months and 23 days.
PHOTO: AFP
It capped an incredible comeback for Date-Krumm, who reached world No. 4 in 1995 before retiring a year later after finding the pressure of life on tour too much.
She returned to the scene last year but crashed at the first hurdle in all eight of her WTA Tour events since.
She finally got over the hump against Korean wildcard Lee Ye-ra here.
It looked like the honeymoon was over against Alisa Kleybanova in the second round, but facing a match point Date-Krumm rallied for a three-set victory.
She then beat top seed Daniela Hantuchova in the quarter-finals and dispatched defending champion Maria Kirilenko in the semis.
Against Medina Garrigues, Date-Krumm faced her most tenacious and consistent opponent yet, but she converted the only break point of the first set and held the momentum in the second set for a 6-3, 6-3 win.
Date-Krumm now has eight singles titles on the Tour, her first seven all coming between 1992 and 1996.
■OPEN DE MOSELLE
AP, METZ, FRANCE
Top-seeded Gael Monfils reached the Open de Moselle final with a 6-4, 6-3 win over fellow Frenchman Richard Gasquet on Saturday.
Monfils, who reached the fourth round at this year’s US Open, will next face second-seeded Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany, who ousted Paul-Henri Mathieu of France 7-6 (5), 6-4. Monfils won his previous encounter with Kohlschreiber last year in Vienna.
Monfils and Gasquet met in Metz for a third time after trading wins against each other in the quarterfinal stage in 2004 and 2005.
The 13th-ranked Monfils will play his second final in the indoor hard court tournament after losing to Ivan Ljubicic in Metz in 2005.
He is chasing his second ATP title following his maiden win at Sopot in 2005.
Kohlschreiber reached his first final on the ATP tour since finishing runner-up to Roger Federer last year in Halle.
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