Tennis is a Year-Round-World-Round Sport

Written by: Staff on 7th February 2012

Tennis is a Year-Round-World-Round Sport |

Sometimes, it is little wonder that tennis players get sick. There are not many professions that require you to change seasons every week, as Kimiko Date-Krumm and others who are competing in the PTT Pattaya Open this week have been required to do. The 41-year old Japanese icon explained in a blog for www.wtatennis.com the challenge of going from the Australian summer to Japan in the depths of winter for a Fed cup tie, and then to a hot and humid Thailand.

“I came to Pattaya from Hyogo, Japan, where we were playing against Slovenia in Fed Cup,” she wrote. “There were many people watching me there! I graduated in Kobe, which is in the same area, so my high school classmates, friends and even my mother were watching. But it also made me happy so many people were supporting me. It was a pity I didn’t have more time to stay there and catch up with many of my old friends.

“It is only a two hour time difference from Japan to Thailand. . . (but) there is one big difference between the two places – it is only 7 or 8 degrees in Hyogo, and here it is over 30.

“I was in Australia last month and it was so hot there, especially playing outside. Then I went back to Japan and it was like traveling from summer to winter. It was pretty cold to play in Hyogo. We played indoors, and even though we turned the heat on, it was still very cold. Now I’ve traveled from winter to summer again. I really like the weather here in Pattaya. I like hot weather! I also like spicy food very much – and eating spicy food in this hot weather, you can imagine how you will feel!”

Topics: Kimiko Date-Krumm, Tennis