Kimiko Date-Krumm and her love for professional tennis is showing no signs of stropping as the former world No.4 pledges to return to the tour after undergoing knee surgery.
The 45-year-old, who turn 46 at the end of the month, hasn’t played a match since her first round loss in qualifying at the Australian Open in January. She was forced to undergo endoscopic surgery in April after an MRI detected a crack in her left knee, casting doubts of her ability to continue playing. Despite the scare, Date-Krumm is planning to return next year, 28 years after making her WTA debut.
“I have been told it will take a year (to fully recover from the operation) and it’s just a case of how much more or less time it will be than that,” Date-Krumm told reporters in Tokyo.
“Everything has gone well up to this point and it has not put limitations on my daily life. As an athlete, you have to condition muscle and I want the injury to properly heal.”
Date-Krumm is a three-time grand slam semi-finalist, reaching the last four at the Australian Open (94), French Open (95) and Wimbledon (96). She retired from the sport shortly after her Wimbledon run in 1996 before returning to the tour in 2008. In her comeback, the Japanese player returned to the top 50 and won the 2009 Seoul Open. During an interview with the WTA Tour last year, Date-Krumm admitted that she enjoys life on the tour more since her 2008 comeback.
“When I was young I didn’t enjoy it because of the pressure.” She said. “Now I enjoy travelling also. When I was a kid – first career – I hated travelling. But it was a big difference – no computer, no mobile phone at that time. So it wasn’t easy to travel. And back then there were not so many Asian people on tour. And there was a lot of pressure because I was Japanese.”
Overall, Date-Krumm currently has eight WTA titles to her name with a 17-year gap between her first (Tokyo 1992) and last (Seoul 2008).
