Japan’s Kimiko Date-Krumm contests a referee’s decision during her French Open against Australia’s Samantha Stosur at the Roland Garros Stadium in Paris yesterday.
PARIS: Japan’s Kimiko Date-Krumm says her husband has helped her to take things less seriously and go out and enjoy the twilight of her career.
Date-Krumm became the third oldest woman to compete in the French Open when she went down in straight sets to Australian ninth seed Samantha Stosur yesterday -- yet she still revelled in the experience -- even if she only captured two games in a 6-0, 6-2 drubbing.
“You know, I have still passion, and when I was young in the 90s I was not enjoying the Tour. I only had stress all the time,” explained the 42-year-old from Kyoto who managed to reach the third round at the Australian Open last January.
“When I went to the airport from Tokyo to somewhere I was always thinking, ‘oh, my passport expired ... sometimes I’m crying on the airplane because I don’t want to stay out of Japan and always not happy.”
Such sentiments prompted her to retire back in 1996 after suffering three Grand Slam semi-final losses -- including one in Paris -- and she married German racing car driver Michael Krumm in 2001.
And it’s he who has encouraged her to view the game and her career differently since she returned to the courts in 2008.
“After I stopped tennis, then I enjoy my normal life. And then I married a German guy (and) I change myself a lot. And also he tried to change me, my husband tried to change me.”
Date-Krumm said whereas she would once over-rationalise, her husband told her to loosen up rather than be concerned about “what time I need to eat, what time I need to sleep, what time I need to wake up, what time I need to start stretching and everything I organise.”
Her spouse told her that she had to chill out as “you need to sometimes drink wine before the match, even before the match, relax. And he tried to change (me) like this, because sometimes I am a little bit too strict on myself,” said Date-Krumm, who came to Paris hot from winning the Strasbourg doubles.
Even though Stosur romped home in just 64 minutes -- avenging a 2010 loss to her opponent in Osaka which saw the Aussie become the first top ten player to lose to a rival past her 40th birthday -- Date-Krumm pronounced her tennis “not so bad” as “Stosur is so strong and she’s a specialist on the clay.”
Five of Date-Krumm’s eight titles have come in Tokyo and the hardcourt specialist and former world number four admits that “already before the red clay season I decide anyway I don’t like red clay. Not my surface. Everybody knows. I know myself also.”
Despite yesterday’s loss she has no intention of hanging up her racquet yet as she enjoys the final lap of her career.
“I try to just focus on doubles tomorrow or day after tomorrow, and then I’m already focused on the grass court season.” REUTERS
