Years catch up with Date-Krumm at Wimbledon
Kimiko Date-Krumm, at 41 comfortably the oldest player at Wimbledon, crashed out in the first round on Wednesday, the Japanese number one losing in three sets to Ukraine's Kateryna Bondarenko.
Kimiko Date-Krumm, at 41 comfortably the oldest player at Wimbledon, crashed out in the first round on Wednesday, the Japanese number one losing in three sets to Ukraine's Kateryna Bondarenko.
Date-Krumm took the first set but lost 5-7, 6-3, 6-3 on the 300-capacity Court 16, which was packed with Japanese fans.
The world number 82 gave away 21 break points in the match, which lasted just under two hours.
Date-Krumm, who reached the semi-finals in 1996 before retiring, made the second round last year, her joint best slam performance since returning to the tour.
But she could not emulate that performance this time around.
The oldest player now left in the women's draw is Italian 24th seed Francesca Schiavone at 32.
Date-Krumm was broken early in the final set and though she broke to make it 3-3, Bondarenko broke again and went on to win, taking herself to match point with a lucky net cord and then winning when the Japanese fired long.
Bondarenko, ranked 66, will now play Serbian 14th seed Ana Ivanovic in the second round.
In the men's doubles first round, seventh-seeded Indian pairing Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna beat Marcel Felder of Uruguay and Tunisia's Malek Jaziri 6-0, 7-6 (7/1), 6-2.
The Indian pair are at the centre of a bitter row embroiling Indian tennis over the doubles pairings for the London 2012 Olympics, at which the tennis tournament will be contested at Wimbledon.
They both refused to play with the higher-ranked Leander Paes for a range of personal and professional reasons, in a spat that has even drawn in India's foreign and sports ministers.
Elsewhere in the men's doubles opening round, Treat Conrad Huey of the Philippines and his British partner Dominic Inglot were beaten 4-6, 6-3, 2-6, 7-6 (8/6), 9-7 by the Israeli duo Jonathan Erlich and Andy Ram.