Kimiko Date
Kimiko Date is a Japanese former professional tennis player. She reached the semifinals of the 1994 Australian Open, the 1995 French Open and the 1996 Wimbledon Championships, and won the Japan Open a record four times. She reached a career-high ranking of world No. 4 in 1995, and first retired from professional tennis in November 1996.
Date returned to tennis nearly twelve years later, announcing an unexpected comeback in April 2008. She then won her eighth WTA Tour title at the 2009 Korea Open, becoming the second-oldest player in the Open era, after Billie Jean King, to win a singles title on the WTA Tour. In 2013, she won three WTA Tour titles in doubles and at the 2014 US Open, aged 43, she reached the semifinals of a Grand Slam doubles tournament for the first time in her career. Date announced her final retirement in September 2017.
Professional career
1989–1996
Date began 1990 by reaching the fourth round at the Australian Open, where she was defeated by fourth seed Helena Suková. The following year, ranked world No. 112, she was runner-up in Los Angeles, defeating world No. 3, Gabriela Sabatini, before losing to Monica Seles in the final.In 1992, Date defeated Arantxa Sánchez Vicario in the Pan Pacific Open and reached the semifinals. She also won the Japan Open, reached the semifinals in the Mizuno World Ladies Open and reached the fourth round at Roland Garros. Date participated in the Barcelona Olympics, losing in the second round. At the end of the year, she received the WTA Most Improved Player of the Year award.
Date won the Japan Open again in 1993. She was runner-up in the Asia Women's Open and the Nichiray Ladies Cup. She reached the semifinals in the Lipton Championships defeating Mary Joe Fernández. In the US Open, she reached the quarterfinals beating Jana Novotná in the fourth round.
In 1994, Date won the Sydney International in January, defeating world No. 4, Conchita Martínez, and Mary Joe Fernández on her way to the title, after which she entered the world's top 10 for the first time. She beat Martinez again the following week at the Australian Open on the way to her first Grand Slam semifinal. Date won her third consecutive Japan Open. At the 1994 Asian Games, she won gold in the women's singles. At the end-of-year WTA Finals, she defeated Martinez again, before losing to eventual champion Sabatini in the semifinals, in three sets.
Date won her first, and only, Tier I tournament at the Pan Pacific Open in 1995, defeating Martinez and Lindsay Davenport to the title. She was also runner-up in the tier one Miami Open, defeating Sabatini before losing to Graf in straight sets. Date defeated Davenport again on her way to the semifinals of the French Open, reached the quarterfinals at Wimbledon, and was runner-up in Tokyo and Strasbourg, reaching a career-high ranking of No. 4 in November 1995.
In 1996, Date won both singles and doubles in the Japan Open. In the Fed Cup, she defeated world No. 1 Graf for the first and only time, winning 7–6, 3–6, 12–10. At Wimbledon, she beat world No. 2, Conchita Martínez, in the fourth round and Mary Pierce in the quarterfinal, before losing to eventual champion Graf in the semifinals in three sets. Date defeated Martinez in the semifinals and world No. 2, Arantxa Sánchez Vicario, in the finals of San Diego. and reached the quarterfinals in the 1996 Summer Olympics. Date announced her retirement – aged 25 – in September, and played her final match at the WTA Finals, losing to Martina Hingis in the quarterfinals.
2008: Comeback
On 6 April 2008, nearly 12 years after retiring, Date announced she would return to the professional tour at the age of 37.She qualified for the $50k Kangaroo Cup in Gifu, Japan. In the first round, she played compatriot and world No. 183 Rika Fujiwara. In only her fourth match on the tour for eleven years, Date won in three sets. At the quarterfinal stage, Date came up against world No. 80 and fellow Japanese, Aiko Nakamura, whom she beat in three sets. This marked her first top-100 win of her comeback. In her semifinal match, she defeated No. 3 seed Melanie South. However, in the final, she was defeated by Tamarine Tanasugarn, in three sets. She won the doubles title at that tournament with teenage and fellow Japanese partner Kurumi Nara, defeating Melanie South and Nicole Thyssen in a match tie-breaker.
Her next event was another $50k event in Fukuoka, Japan. She defeated both Nicole Kriz and Rika Fujiwara to reach the quarterfinals where she lost to Aiko Nakamura in straight sets. She then defeated Shiho Hisamatsu and Zhou Yimiao to reach the quarterfinals where she lost to Tomoko Yonemura in straight sets, in another tournament in Japan, a 50k event in Kurume. On 15 June 2008, she defeated Shiho Akita to win the Tokyo Ariake International Ladies Open for her first post-comeback championship. Her second came over a month after, as on 20 July, she won a $25k event in Miyazaki, Japan, defeating Chae Kyung-yee in the final. On 3 August, she won the $25k event in Obihiro, Japan. In the final, she beat Suchanun Viratprasert.
Date made her WTA Tour comeback at the Tier-I event in Tokyo where she was awarded a wildcard into the qualifying tournament. She won through to the final round of qualifying after defeating Mari Tanaka of Japan and Australian Casey Dellacqua. Both of these victories came in tight three-set matches. She lost in the final round to Aleksandra Wozniak of Canada in straight sets. Along with fellow Japanese Fujiwara, Date also competed in doubles, as wildcard entrant. However, they lost in three tight sets in the first round. Date was in the main draw for the Japan Open but lost in the first round to Shahar Pe'er.
In October, she played her first tournament out of Japan since November 1996, in the quarterfinals at the Taipei Ladies Open.
In November, she competed at the All-Japan Tennis Championships, her first appearance there in 16 years. Date won both the singles and doubles titles.
2009
Date received a wildcard entrant to the main draw of the Auckland Open where she was overpowered by Jill Craybas in the first round. Later in January, Date qualified for the Australian Open and met Kaia Kanepi in the first round, where she lost a close three-setter.Date then played in the main draw of the International event in Pattaya City. In the first round, she was defeated by the eighth-seeded Slovak Magdaléna Rybáriková in three sets. She then reached the quarterfinals of an ITF event in Clearwater, Florida, beating Lauren Embree of the US and fellow Japanese player Aiko Nakamura before losing to third-seeded Slovak Jarmila Groth in three sets. She then played at a $25k event in Hammond, Louisiana where she breezed past qualifier Heidi El Tabakh. She then beat American Lauren Albanese in the round of 16 for a place in the quarterfinals where she lost to qualifier Lindsay Lee-Waters in three sets. Date moved onto the $75k in Monzón, Spain, her first European event since July 1996. Seeded sixth, victories over Spaniard Eva Fernandez-Bruges and Croat Ana Vrljić took her to the quarterfinals. There she beat British top seed Elena Baltacha, 5–7, 6–4, 7–6. She followed that win by beating Arantxa Parra Santonja to reach the final, and she earned a two-set-victory over Romanian qualifier Alexandra Dulgheru to claim the biggest title of her comeback that far.
Date was awarded a wildcard entry to the Wimbledon Championships. This was her first competition at Wimbledon in 13 years. In the first round she lost to ninth seed Caroline Wozniacki with her performance in the second and third sets diminished due to an injury.
In the Guangzhou International Open, Date, partnering Sun Tiantian, reached her first WTA Tour final since she had come back to the tour, but lost in a tight match.
At the Korea Open in Seoul, Date won her first WTA level match after the return, against Lee Ye-ra, and came up with a second victory right after over Alisa Kleybanova, coming back from a set and 5–2 down. In the quarterfinals, Kimiko defeated top seed Daniela Hantuchová in three sets lasting over two and a half hours. In the semifinals, she defeated defending champion Maria Kirilenko. In the final, which was held one day before her 39th birthday, Date defeated Anabel Medina Garrigues to win her first WTA Tour title since her comeback. Thus, she became the second-oldest player in the Open era to win a singles title on the tour, after Billie Jean King, who won Birmingham in 1983, aged 39 years, 7 months and 23 days.
Date then received a wildcard to play at the inaugural Tournament of Champions, the year-end championship, held in Bali, Indonesia. She was in Group C, along with Yanina Wickmayer and Anabel Medina Garrigues. She lost her first match against Wickmayer by a close 6–7, 2–6, but she won her second match against Medina Garrigues in straight sets. Due to Wickmayer's ban from the sport for one year, Date made the semifinals but lost to top seed Marion Bartoli.
2010
Date started 2010 with participation in Auckland where she received a wildcard to enter the maindraw. She easily beat former world No. 5, Anna Chakvetadze, in the first round, and then recovered from a set down to beat fifth seed Virginie Razzano for her first win over a top-20 player after her comeback. In the quarterfinals, Date was beaten 6–2, 6–2 by the third seed and eventual champion Yanina Wickmayer. She then qualified for Sydney International, a Premier tournament. In the opening round, she defeated Nadia Petrova for her second top-20 victory of 2010. In the second round, she came close to claiming her first top-10 win since 1996 when she pushed world No. 7, Victoria Azarenka, having at one stage trailed 1–6, 2–4. Date competed at the Australian Open in Melbourne, the first time since her comeback that she has had direct acceptance into a Grand Slam main draw. In the first round, she fell to Yaroslava Shvedova in straight sets.In February, Date played for Japan's Fed Cup team for the first time since 1996. By winning all of her four matches, she was instrumental in securing her team's advance to the World Group II play-offs. At the PTT Pattaya Open in Thailand, she was seeded seventh but fell to Anastasia Rodionova in the first round.
Date defeated Melinda Czink in the first round of the Indian Wells Open, before falling to No. 15 seed Francesca Schiavone in the second. She also made it to the second round of the Miami Open by defeating former top-10 player Anna Chakvetadze. She then lost to No. 16 seed Nadia Petrova.
Date began her clay-court season at the Estoril Open in Portugal. In the first round, she outlasted 19-year-old Petra Martić, defeating her in 3 hours and 12 minutes 6–7, 7–5, 7–6. She played Anastasija Sevastova in the second round, but retired due to a recurring calf injury.
At the French Open, she defeated No. 9 seed and former world No. 1, 2009 runner-up Dinara Safina in the first round, despite being 2–4 down in the second set and two breaks down at 1–4 in the third, plus having an apparent calf injury. This was her first win in a grandslam's main draw since 1997 and at 39y/7m/26d, she became the oldest player ever to beat a top-10 player. She was defeated by wildcard Jarmila Groth in the second round.
In Stanford, Date again defeated Safina in the first round, after trailing by a set and 2–0. Following the conclusion of the US Open series, Date, ranked 50th, became the oldest top-50 player since Billie Jean King in 1984.
At the US Open, Date received direct entry into the main draw but lost to two-time Grand Slam champion Svetlana Kuznetsova in the first round. She then traveled to Seoul to defend her title at the Korea Open but lost in the quarterfinals to Ágnes Szávay. One week later, she accepted wildcard entry at the Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo. She beat the defending champion and former world No. 1, Maria Sharapova, in the first round, 7–5, 3–6, 6–3. She then faced Daniela Hantuchová in the second round and won 2–6, 6–0, 4–0, as Hantuchová retired. This was on her 40th birthday. She then lost to French Open champion Francesca Schiavone in the third round 6–3, 6–3. Later on that same week, she went to China to participate at the China Open. She beat Anabel Medina Garrigues in the first round, but lost to Elena Dementieva in the second round, in three sets.
Kimiko then returned home to compete at the Japan Open in Osaka. Seeded sixth, she defeated teenage qualifier Laura Robson in the first round and compatriot Aiko Nakamura. In the quarterfinals, she upset top seed and world No. 8, Samantha Stosur to book a semifinal encounter with third seed Shahar Pe'er. She beat her but lost the final match to unseeded Tanasugarn. With that reaching of the final in Osaka, she once again entered the top-50 WTA rankings at No. 48. Also, this final in Osaka had the oldest combined age of WTA tournament finalists at 73.
Date then received a wildcard to enter the Tournament of Champions in Bali, Indonesia for the second time in a row. Despite at one point having her serve broken seven consecutive times, she defeated first seeded, Li Na in the quarterfinals after being down 1–3 in the third set. She lost to Ana Ivanovic in the semifinals, but won the third place match against Daniela Hantuchová by the scoreline of 7–5, 7–5. With that performance in Bali, she was once again in the top 50s, moving up to No. 46, but falling back to finish the year at No. 51.
Her last activity of 2010 was participation in the Asian Games, where she won a bronze medal in singles and with Japan in the team competition.