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Comeback queen Date picked for Fed Cup

TOKYO: Former world number four Kimiko Date-Krumm, enjoying a comeback after more than a decade in retirement, was selected Monday for Japan’s Fed Cup squad for the first time in 14 years. The 39-year-old will be joined by Ayumi Morita, Rika Fujiwara and Yurika Sema in the squad bound for February’s Fed Cup Asia-Oceania regional qualifying tournament in Kuala Lumpur, the Japan Tennis Association said. “It has yet to sink in that I am going to carry the national flag,” Date-Krumm told reporters. “But I hope that Japanese tennis will move forward and I want to contribute to the team.” Japan’s Fed team head coach Takeshi Murakami said it was possible that Date-Krumm would compete in both singles and doubles.

She is the oldest player in the team and her world ranking – 69th – is now the highest among Japanese women following the retirement of Ai Sugiyama at the end of this past season. Fujiwara is the youngest at 19. “In either singles or doubles, or even on the bench, I want to help create a great atmosphere,” said the veteran player. The Asia-Oceania Group I round robin will split eight squads – Taiwan, Indonesia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Korea, New Zealand, Thailand and Uzbekistan – into two pools. The winners of each pool will clash for a berth in the second-tier World Group II relegation-promotion play-offs.

Date-Krumm reached the world number four spot in 1995 before retiring a year later after finding the pressure of life on tour too much. She married German racing driver Michael Krumm in 2001. After her comeback in 2008, she lost to Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki, then 18, in the first round at Wimbledon in June this year. But in September, Date-Krumm chalked up her first tournament victory in 13 years, which made her the oldest winner of a WTA event since Billie Jean King in 1983. She triumphed at the Korean Open, an event on the second-tier WTA International Tournament series. afp

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