Kimiko Date

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Kimiko Date
Country Flag of Japan Japan
Residence Tokyo, Japan
Date of birth September 28, 1970
Place of birth Kyoto, Japan
Height 5'4" (1.63 m)
Weight 117 lbs. (53.0 kg)
Turned pro March 1989
Retired 1996; comeback in 2008
Plays Right-handed
Career prize money $1,974,253
Singles
Career record: 235-97
Career titles: 7 WTA, 5 ITF
Highest ranking: No. 4 (May 13, 1995)
Grand Slam results
Australian Open SF (1994)
French Open SF (1995)
Wimbledon SF (1996), QF (1995)
US Open QF (1993-94)
Doubles
Career record: 63-46
Career titles: 1 WTA, 5 ITF
Highest ranking: n/a

Infobox last updated on: n/a.

Kimiko Date (伊達 公子 Date Kimiko?, born September 28, 1970) is a Japanese professional tennis player. In her career, she won over 200 tournament matches, including the Japan Open four times. In 1994, she was ranked in the top-ten women players in the world. In 1992, the WTA awarded her the "Most Improved Player Of The Year" and the Japan Men's Fashion Association named her "Most Fashionable." After playing in her second Olympiad, she announced her retirement on September 24, 1996. Yet, she came back on court nearly 12 years later, announcing an unexpected comeback in April 2008.

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[edit] Early career

Born in Kyoto, Japan, Date started playing tennis when she was 7 years old. By the age of 14, she reached the semi-finals in the All-Japan Junior Under-14 championship. In next year, she won the 3rd place in the Japanese National Junior High School Tennis Championship.

In 1986, while attending Sonoda-Joshi High School, she won the All-Japan Junior Under-16 Championship in doubles. In 1987, she reached the semi-finals in the All-Japan Tennis Championship.

In 1988, she won the Invitational All-Japan Junior Indoor Championship (for both women single and doubles), the Wimbledon Junior Championship (for singles), the Japanese National High School Athlete Meet (for singles and doubles), the Japanese All-Japan Junior Tennis Tournament Under-18 (for singles and doubles), and the International Women Circuit, Masters, despite already having a heavy smoking habit.

[edit] Professional career

Date played in her first Grand Slam event in 1990 at the Australian Open, where she reached the 4th round. At Wimbledon she won her first match, but lost her second match.

In 1991, she was runner-up of Virginia Slim Of Los Angeles Tournament, defeating Gabriela Sabatini, but losing to Monica Seles in the finals.

In 1992, Date defeated Arantxa Sánchez Vicario in the Toray Pan-Pacific Open and reached the semi-finals. That year she also won the Japan Open, reached the semi-finals in the Mizuno World Ladies Open, and the quarter-finals in the Lipton Championship and the Grand Slam, Roland Garros. She also participated in the Barcelona Olympics.

In 1993, she again won the Japan Open. She was runner-up in the Asia Women's Open and the Nichiray Ladies Cup. She reached the semi-finals in the Lipton Championships defeating M. J. Fernandez. In the U.S. Open, she reached the quarter-finals.

In 1994, she won her third consecutive Japan Open. She won the gold medal in Hiroshima Asia competition. She reached the semi-finals of the Australian Open (first time from Japan in over two decades, lost Steffi Graf) and the Virginia Slims Championships.

In 1995, she won the Toray PPO , and was runner-up in the Lipton Championship and the Japan Open. She reached the semi-finals in the Grand Slam, Roland Garros (lost Arantxa Sánchez Vicario), and the quarter-finals at Wimbledon (lost Jana Novotná).

In 1996, she reached her 200th win in tournament play. She also won both singles and doubles in Japan Open. In the Federation Cup, she defeated Steffi Graf for the first time. Date reached semifinals of Wimbledon, battling Graf over two days. Trailing 0–4 io the first set, she stormed back in the second set. Although the chair umpire initially refused to call off the match due to darkness despite Graf's plea, he changed his mind and postponed the final set until the next day. Graf swiftly won that and her seventh title there. Date also won a major tournament in San Diego and reached quarterfinals in the 1996 Summer Olympic Games. She held her last match at the 2nd round of WTA Tour Championships; she lost to Martina Hingis 1–6, 2–6.

In 1997, she starred in the first commercial for the hybrid car, Toyota Prius and was the first celebrity owner of one.

Kimiko Date lives in Tokyo and is married to German motor racing driver Michael Krumm.

[edit] Comeback

On 6 April 2008, nearly 12 years after retiring, Date announced she would return to the women's professional tour at the age of 37.[1]

Date qualified for a 50k ITF event in Gifu, Japan. In the first round, she played Japanese counterpart and World No.183 Rika Fujiwara. In only her 4th match on the tour for 11 years, Date won 2-6 6-4 6-4. At the quarterfinal stage, Date came up against World No.80 and fellow compatriot Aiko Nakamura, whom she beat 7-6(7) 4-6 6-3. This marked her first Top 100 win of her comeback. In her semifinal match, she defeated #3 seed Melanie South 7-6(5) 6-3. However, in the final, she was defeated by Tamarine Tanasugarn of Thailand in three sets, 6-4 5-7 2-6. She successfully 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, 6-1 6-7(8) [10-7].

Kimiko's next event was another 50k ITF event in Fukuoka, Japan. She defeated both Nicole Kriz and Rika Fujiwara to reach the quarter finals where she lost to Aiko Nakamura in straight sets, 6-2 6-2. She then defeated Shiho Hisamatsu and Zhou Yi-Miao to reach the quarterfinals where she lost to Tomoko Yonemura in straight sets, 6-2 6-2, in another tournament in Japan, a 50k event in Kurume. She has now made her way back into the WTA rankings at 425 in singles, and 428 in doubles.

[edit] WTA Tour titles (7)

[edit] Singles wins (7)

Legend
Grand Slam (0)
WTA Championships (0)
Tier I (1)
Tier II (2)
Tier III (3)
Tier IV (1)
No. Date Tournament Surface Opponent in the final Score
1. April 12, 1992 Tokyo, Japan Hard Flag of Belgium Sabine Appelmans 7–5, 3–6, 6–3
2. April 11, 1993 Tokyo, Japan Hard Flag of the Netherlands Stephanie Rottier 6–1, 6–3
3. January 16, 1994 Sydney, Australia Hard Flag of the United States Mary Joe Fernández 6–4, 6–2
4. April 10, 1994 Tokyo, Japan Hard Flag of the United States Amy Frazier 7–5, 6–0
5. February 5, 1995 Tokyo, Japan Carpet Flag of the United States Lindsay Davenport 6–1, 6–2
6. April 21, 1996 Tokyo, Japan Hard Flag of the United States Amy Frazier 7–5, 6–4
7. August 25, 1996 San Diego, USA Hard Flag of Spain Arantxa Sánchez Vicario 3–6, 6–3, 6–0

[edit] Doubles wins (1)

Legend
Grand Slam (0)
WTA Championships (0)
Tier I (0)
Tier II (0)
Tier III (1)
Tier IV (0)
No. Date Tournament Surface Partner Opponent in the final Score
1. April 21, 1996 Tokyo, Japan Hard Flag of JapanAi Sugiyama Flag of the United StatesAmy Frazier
Flag of the United StatesKimberly Po		 7–6(6) 6–7(6) 6–3

[edit] External links