By Sean Rudolph
© Tony Chang/Chang Photography

(November 4, 2010) Kimiko Date Krumm continues to go the distance in taking down top 20 players. The 40-year-old Date Krumm competed with defiant determination in dispatching top-seeded Li Na, 6-4, 3-6, 6-4, to advance to the Commonwealth Bank Tournament of Champions semifinals in Bali.

It was the first meeting between the 11th-ranked Li and Date Krumm, who have practiced together in the past.

"There are only two players from Asia and we didn't want to play each other, but that's the way it goes!" said Date Krumm, who will face former World No. 1 Ana Ivanovic in the semifinals.

Date Krumm roared back from a 1-3 third-set deficit in winning five of the final six games. She said her supreme fitness has been a big factor in her successful comeback.

"It's a miracle," Date Krumm told Reuters after upsetting a woman 12 years her junior. "I'm surprised they are not as fit as me. I don't like to limit myself so I always push myself very hard. Sometimes my husband says that I should give up otherwise I'll get a big injury. But I don't want to lose. I hate to lose. I don't like to retire, even if I get an injury."

Ivanovic won 11 straight games to start the match in powering past third-seeded Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, 6-0, 6-1, in 56 minutes.

"I'm very satisfied. I played a great match," Ivanovic said. "You never know how you're going to start a tournament, especially in a new environment, so I am really, really happy."



Ivanovic, who struggled with her service toss earlier this season, hit six aces and did not drop serve.

"It was an almost perfect performance," Ivanovic said. "I really felt good out there. I thought I really served well and played aggressive and was moving well, so there wasn't much wrong today. I feel the things I've been working on, I can see them working now in the matches and that makes a big difference when you have pressure and important points."

Defending champion Aravane Rezai plays Russia's Alisa Kleybanova of Russia, and fourth-seeded BelgianYanina Wickmayer faces Daniela Hantuchova in the two remaining quarterfinals of the eight-player, single-elimination event.

Last month in the Osaka quarterfinals, Date Krumm defeated eighth-ranked Samantha Stosur to become the first player of her age ever to beat a Top 10 player. She followed that win up by edging third-seeded Shahar Peer, 3-6, 7-6(5), 7-5, in a two hour, 58-minute semifinal. Peer served for the match at 5-4 in the second set, but Date Krumm, 17 years older than Peer, battled back to beat the World No. 13. Date Krumm lost to Tamarine Tanasugarn in the Osaka final.

A year ago, Date Krumm claimed her first tournament title in 12 years, dispatching fifth-seeded Alisa Kleybanova and top-seeded Daniela Hantuchova before stopping second-seeded Anabel Medina Garrigues to win Seoul. At the age of 38 years, 11 months and 30 days she was the second-oldest woman in Open Era history to capture a tournament title (Billie Jean King was eight months older when she won Birmingham in 1983).