!V By Pete Bodo
For long, long stretches of their two-hour and 56 minute encounter under the translucent skin (roof) above Centre Court, five-time Wimbledon champ Venus Williams probably couldn't tell which Kimiko Date Krumm she was up against.
Was it the 40-year old, 5' 4" sprite, that Asian smiley-face icon whose mission in her second tennis life appears to have been drafted and submitted by Eddie the Eagle? Or was it a tennis-ready version of that character we've seen painted on countless scrolls, lamp shades and lacquered jewelry boxes, the fierce-looking Japanese with the beady-eyed glare and a top-knot? (Although those warrior-like figures were unlikely to feature, as Date-Krumm did, a snow-white headband with a prominently displayed Adidas logo.)
It was hard to tell, because appearances as well as statistics can be deceiving when it comes to Date-Krumm, who certainly resembles some desperate tennis housewife (4.0 NTRP division) living out a dream in which she gets to trade forehands and serves with the 20-something fashionistas and salty veterans (some, like Venus, are both) of the WTA on the great tennis stages. Once, long ago and far away, Date-Krumm hit a career-high year-end ranking of No. 4 (1995). She then blew off the WTA for more than a decade, and sometimes it shows. It's the 125th anniversary of Wimbledon this year, an Kimiko Date-Krumm is the only player who has played every year. Yes, kidding.
But Date-Krumm has battled her way back into the WTA conversation, 4.0-looking game and all, and it's because she's also proven herself a 10.0 competitor. She's now in that Top 50 territory, where she's set up shop as one of the game's better feel good stories. Just thinking about her is enough bring a goofy grin to the face of any tennis fan, followed by a disbelieving shake of the head. What's she doing out there?
Had Venus time to stop and ask herself that very question at any given time during their match today, her answer might have been: She's giving me a free lesson in how to play grass-court tennis the old-school way. . .
And apart from the feel-good content, that's just what made this match interesting and kept the women at each other's throats for almost three full hours in a match that Venus finally won in overtime, 6-7 (6), 6-3, 8-6. The match incorporated a battle between two different kinds of grass-court tennis, neither of which is terribly popular among the rank-and-file these days, if only because it takes a certain measure of natural power to play commanding Wimbledon tennis in the manner of Venus Williams, and the entire drift of the contemporary game is away from the skills and strategies employed by Date-Krumm.
The power-tennis school has a distinguished list of alumni, including Margaret Court, Billie Jean King Martina Navratilova—as well as Venus and Serena Williams, the sisters who together have bagged the Wimbledon title nine times in the last 11 years. That game is straightforward, the closest you can come to meat-and-potatoes tennis on grass. The foundation of the style is a reliance on the big serve and volley, although lately the hyphens have been removed from what was once known as the serve-and-volley, because the volley no longer follows the serves as surely as day follows night.
Whereas the slice was once used as a tool for getting to the net, it's now used mostly when a player finds herself in desperate straits and needs to buy some time to get back into the action. The work once done by the sliced backhand approach shot is now carried out by nuclear-grade groundstrokes—they're basically aggressive approach shots behind which the players don't even bother to approach. Why risk getting passed or lobbed when you can put away the next ball, or at least force your opponent to make an error borne of desperation? But the best grass-court players, like Venus, do come in behind those baseline blasts—and are amply rewarded for it.
Today, Date-Krumm offered a powerful if rare antidote to power tennis, drawing upon some of the techniques and strategies that have always worked on grass, and especially on damp, fast grass. Date-Krumm took the ball early, even with her service return (which isn't always a wise or productive strategy against a server like Venus) and was always looking to come forward. Her shots were flat and low-bouncing, with the intent to take time away from Venus. She made ample use of the drop volley and any number of chips and dinks, including a softly-struck, inside-out, sliced-with-sidespin forehand that she hit for a clean winner on one critical point. I'll bet some of you old-schoolers jumped out of your chair and punched the air just because of the sheer, improvisational beauty of the shot.
Although the serve has always been a critical weakness for Date-Krumm, she isn't afraid to come to net behind it when she sees—in that split-second before the return—that the serve was very-well placed and the return destined to be defensive and volley-able. This is something that many women theoretically could do more of, were they more open to the idea. But these days, serving and volleying just isn't on the mental radar, even for many of the big servers. ESPN commentator Chris Evert was really onto something when she made an observation that could easily be mistaken for mere silence-filler. "Kimiko really sees the ball well," Evert said. "It's a great advantage to be able to tell so early where the ball is going."
The first set was ragged. Venus looked rusty, as you might expect from a woman who's played only three matches—and those barely a week ago—in nearly five months. But Date-Krumm's opportunistic style had a lot to do with Venus' plight, for she was departing freely and heavily from a WTA script that calls for the game to be rally-based. The ideal grass-court mentality is easily summed up in eight words that cover all the contingencies: Make the points as short as you can.
Venus clearly wasn't prepared or accustomed to being rushed that way, and she didn't seem entirely comfortable engaging in a running battle of slices, nicks and jabs rather than haymakers and punishing body punches. Still, shell-shocked and back on her heels, Venus battled back from a 1-5 deficit and very nearly stole the first set. She had a set point while leading, 6-5, and the way Date-Krumm fended it off told the entire story of the match but for the outcome: Date-Krumm served and knocked off the volley to dismiss the threat, forcing a tiebreaker that she ultimately won after Williams staved off a grand total of seven set points.
To her credit, Venus recovered, and in the second and third sets it was a more appealing, artfully conducted war between the two grass-court styles. Venus tried to impose herself and smother Date-Krumm. The Japanese veteran relied on her tactics, guile, and an easily underestimated fighting spirit to slip Venus' heaviest blows and sometimes even to use Venus's own power and pace against her, firing back flat, penetrating shots, often with strokes that were more of a block than a swing.
Like other players whose anticipation is excellent, Date-Krumm often seemed to be playing in something like slow-motion. She would leisurely roll a forehand deep into Venus's court, advance cat-like toward the net, and knock off the ensuing passing shot with a volley. At times, Date-Krumm reminded me of Evonne Goolagong, who never took a big cut in her life but massaged the ball to corners and had a way of sneaking to the net unbeknownst to anyone, including her opponent. No wonder Date-Krumm's best Grand Slam result was back-to-back quarterfinal and seminfinal appearances at Wimbledon, starting in 1995.
"She plays so well," Venus said later. “She runs down every ball. She hits every ball basically on the baseline, hard and flat. If you get it anywhere near the mid-court, she hits for the corners and comes to the net. She was so aggressive. . . before I knew it the ball was past me every time in the first set. I thought she played unbelievable today."
Date-Krumm played well alright, but there's a reason she never won a major title, while Venus has collected seven, and it popped up when Date-Krumm served to stay in it at 6-7 in the third. Venus was clearly struggling near the end of the match, but Date-Krumm played a poor service game when even a reasonable one might have tided her through. She made three unforced errors that put her down 15-40, and Venus, not one to miss such an enormous opportunity after all she'd been through, converted her first match point when she attacked after a brief rally and Date-Krumm drove a backhand pass wide.
"She played just one bad game," Evert said ruefully. "Unfortunately it was the last game."
As for Venus, she can go to sleep tonight repeating the mantra, Anything that doesn't kill you only makes you stronger.