Japanese veteran Kimiko Date Krumm credited her husband, German racing driver Michael Krumm, after a sensational first-round win over ninth-seed Dinara Safina at the French Open.
Date Krumm, who will turn 40 in September, became the oldest Roland Garros winner since Virginia Wade after her 3-6, 6-4, 7-5 victory on Tuesday — 21 years after she made her first appearance at the event.
The former world No. 4, a three-time Grand Slam semi-finalist, retired from tennis in 1996 and spent 12 years in the sporting wilderness before returning in 2008.
PHOTO: EPA
Asked what had prompted her comeback at the post-match press conference, she pointed to her husband sitting opposite and beamed: “Because of him.”
The pair married in 2001, five years after Date Krumm’s tennis career had ended, but she revealed that her husband encouraged her to return to the sport because of her passion for keeping fit.
“He’s a racing driver, so he loved sports and tennis,” said Date Krumm, who made her Roland Garros bow in 1989, before 26 members of the women’s draw at the current event had even been born.
“He always asked me: ‘Why don’t you play tennis one more time, just for fun?’ He wanted to see me. When I met him I was already retired, so he could only watch me on TV, not for real.”
She ended her tennis exile in May 2008 and won her eighth WTA title at Seoul last year, thereby becoming the oldest player to win a Tour event in the Open era since Billie Jean King in 1983.
“My first year [after retirement], I only played in Japan, so I wasn’t thinking about Grand Slams,” she said. “Two years ago I was very happy to reach the quarter-finals at the Australian Open. Last year here I injured my calf. So today [Tuesday] I’m very, very happy to be playing on Suzanne Lenglen court.”
Date Krumm revealed that in her time away from tennis she kept as fit as possible, even running the London Marathon in 2004, but stopped because she and her husband wanted to try for a baby.
“We tried to make a baby, but nothing happened,” she said.
“Everyone said I should stop sport. Sometimes he would leave the house and I would start exercising and he’d forget something and come back and say, ‘Why are you starting to exercise?’ I wasn’t happy to stop sport,” she said.
Date Krumm required treatment on her calf while 4-2 down to Safina in the third set and said she carried on playing through the pain simply because she hates giving up.
“I don’t like to retire,” she said. “It’s better to lose, as far as I’m concerned.”
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