Today’s Women’s News (12/2)

Written by: Staff on 2nd December 2012

Today's Women's News (12/2)

epa03283813 Kimiko Date-Krumm of Japan returns to Kateryna Bondarenko of Ukraine during their first round match for the Wimbledon Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis Club, in London, Britain, 27 June 2012. EPA/ANDY RAIN |

Challengers

Why is it that Kimiko Date-Krumm can only do this during the off season?

For the second straight year, Date-Krumm struggled at the WTA level but ended the year with a flourish in Challengers. She won the Dubai $75K event — which featured two Top Sixty players, Irina-Camelia Begu and Bojana Jovanovski, although Date-Krumm didn’t beat either one. In the final, Date-Krumm beat Yulia Putintseva 6-1 3-6 6-4. That’s a pretty good win for Date-Krumm; Putintseva may have come in ranked #125, but she is definitely a tough customer. Date-Krumm should get direct Australian Open entry as a result of this, and Putintseva will be close.

This will be the last big Challenger for a while; the next two weeks have only bottom-tier events. The week of December 17-23 features the next substantial tournament, a $50K at Ankara. That will be the last significant event of 2012.