For tennis players, things can hurt at 19, but the body heals in about 15 minutes. At 29, "Well, I'm probably going to groan when I get up out of this seat,'' said James Blake, describing it."You feel the knees a little more. You feel the back. I can't roll out of the car and hit anymore. I need to be in there stretching, be on the bike for five minutes, do all these things to warm up my body. It's not as much fun."
That's what makes it so amazing that Kimiko Date Krumm won the Korea Open Sunday, beating Anabel Medina Garrigues of Spain 6-3, 6-3.
Date Krumm will turn 39 on Monday. She became the second oldest player to win a WTA Tour event, behind only Billie Jean King who won at 39 years, 7 months and 23 days.
"Yeah, of course," Date Krumm said, "very happy."
This is impossible. Date Krumm beat No. 1 seed Daniela Hantuchova along the way.
We see these stories about old athletes returning, and they're always so fun. Tom Watson was one hole from winning the British Open, and he's nearly 60. Randy Johnson is still going in his mid-40s. Who will ever forget George Foreman's comeback, or Jack Nicklaus'?
But the thing is, they were all older than Date Krumm by far. But they also were playing games where it's much more believable. Tennis requires quickness, in addition to power.
You have to be able to run in short sprints all day long.
To get a sense of this, the third-oldest women's tennis player to win on the WTA Tour was Margaret Court, at 34, in 1976. Fourth was Chris Evert, 33, in 1988. King set the record in 1983.
Take another look at those three. They are among the best players of all time, and also their last wins came between 20 and 33 years ago. Not in this era.
And other than King, these women were nowhere near Date Krumm's age.
See, tennis players age like dogs, seven years for each one. They get old at 28.
You will not see a 59-year old on the verge of winning a major in tennis, like Watson. Jimmy Connors could not win one game from Roger Federer.
Or any top college player.
And in an era with so many women coming back from long layoffs, this is the ultimate comeback. Date Krumm, ranked as high as No. 4 in 1995, came back last year after a 12-year layoff. When she left, she was smaller than the other players. Now, with all these powerful, 6-foot tall women players, to compete with Date Krumm's 5-4, 117-pound frame is, well, impossible.
There's that word again.
"Now, women's tennis is more speedy and more powerful," she said earlier this year. "Of course, for me [it's] a little bit tough.
"Not [just] a little bit."
Date Krumm is not going to be a top-10 player again. She's not going to win a U.S. Open, the way Kim Clijsters did this month after a 2 1/2-year maternity leave. Justine Henin is returning after 1 1/2 years, and she's already the favorite to win the French Open.
We've seen other players come back and win majors. That won't happen here.
But rather than taking wild cards, free passes, into tournaments, Date Krumm decided to work her way back up, through the minor leagues and into qualifying tournaments.
Her schedule this year included Clearwater, Redding and Hammond. She has climbed back to No. 155 in the world, and will be higher tomorrow. She played a qualifying tournament to get into the Australian Open, where she went three sets with Caroline Wozniacki, a top-10 player. She also got into Wimbledon that way.
The hard way.
Date Krumm is having success by taking advantage of a weakness in today's women's game. That weakness, in many of the players is from the neck up. It's exactly why Melanie Oudin, who is bigger than Date Krumm and less than half her age, could have a run through the Open.
"Tennis, my opinion, is more using the head because I don't have so much power, and [am] not tall.
"[With other players] it's only boom. Today, especially on grass, I must use more slice, sometimes slow."
But why come back at all? Well, it sort of just happened.
Date Krumm quit the first time because of the loneliness of tour life, she said. She talked about the pressure of being the first top-10 woman from Japan.
Since retiring, she married German race car driver Michael Krumm, who she met at the race in Le Mans. He was living in Japan.
She sounds just like Clijsters in talking about finding balance and fulfillment away from the game, then finding the itch to come back.
Only difference was, it took Date Krumm more than a decade to feel it.
After she retired in 1996, she said, she tried other sports for fun. Swimming, jogging. She ran a marathon in 3 1/2 hours. But her husband wanted her to go back on tour because he hadn't seen her at the top level.
She would play an exhibition match for fun, and he said that didn't count.
"Then last year in March, I had an exhibition match in Tokyo with Steffi Graf and Martina Navratilova," she said. "After that, he pushed me so hard. Then, I decided I just enjoyed to play again."
When she started her comeback, the goal was to play in the Japan Open. Getting back to the tour, she said at the time, was impossible, She couldn't even dream it.
That's because it was impossible.
Email me at gregcouch09@aol.com
