Gael Monfils lunges for a backhand against Tomas Berdych of Czech Republic at the French Open at Roland Garros in Paris on Monday. Monfils, whose career has recently been hampered by injuries, returned to the Open with a bang to beat Czech fifth seed Berdych in a first-round marathon, 7-6 (8), 6-4, 6-7 (3), 6-7 (4), 7-5. Vincent Kessler / Reuters

Japanese veteran crashes to Stosur in straight sets at Open

World No 83 Kimiko Date-Krumm saw age catch up with her on Tuesday as the 42-year-old Japanese slid out at the French Open, losing her opening round match to Australian ninth seed Samantha Stosur.

The veteran strove as best she could but was no match for former US Open champion Stosur, who romped to a 6-0, 6-2 victory in just 1 hr, 4 min.

It was only in the fourth game of the second set that Date-Krumm finally got on the scoresheet as she held serve and broke out into a relieved grin.

But Stosur, losing finalist three years ago, was not going to allow a possible upset to develop. And she promptly closed the door against a rival who at 42 years and 240 days became the third oldest player to compete in women's singles in the tournament - Martina Navratilova holds the record at 47 and 232 days from her 2004 showing.

Fifty-seven players in this year's women's singles draw were not even born when Date-Krumm made her Roland Garros debut just a year shy of a quarter of a century ago, in 1989.

Six years after that, she went down in the semifinals to Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario and that remains the Kyoto-born player's best showing in 12 attempts on the slow red clay in the French capital.

But her 45th main draw Grand Slam showing came to a swift end against Stosur, who had lost to the Japanese in Osaka in 2010 as the Aussie became on that occasion the first top-10 player to lose to a rival past her 40th birthday.

Possibly with that loss in mind, Stosur set off like a train, rattling off the opening set in just 21 min as her opponent fired a wayward forehand beyond the baseline.

A comparatively marathon game heralded the start of the second set as Stosur took fully six minutes to hold serve.

Date-Krumm then unsuccessfully disputed a line call as she let slip the opening point of the next game and looked thoroughly dispirited as a crunching Stosur forehand return found the line to break the Japanese to love.

Date-Krumm, who won the most recent of her eight singles crowns in Seoul in 2009 - a WTA Tour record 12 years on from her previous success to become the second oldest ever tournament winner after Billie Jean King - eked out a break chance in the following game.

But Stosur again worked her all around the court before leaving her marooned as another forehand found its dusty mark against the former world No 4.

A flicker of resistance then emerged as Date-Krumm, a semifinalist once each at Roland Garros, the Australian Open and Wimbledon in the mid-1990s, held for 1-3 and then hit a double-handed crosscourt winner to hold for 2-4 while delighted Japanese fans huddled in raincoats in chilly conditions on Court 1.

There was a further glint of feistiness from Date-Krumm as she challenged the umpire's finding that she had double hit a forehand while sliding in on the brink of defeat at 2-5 down; then she finally drove long to concede the contest.

Stosur now faces either Lauren Davis of the United States or Kristina Mladenovic of France.

Rain brought another halt to play at the French Open on Tuesday after just 90 minutes of action had been possible.

The third day of the tournament had already been delayed by almost three hours due to morning rain.

Of the 40 first-round singles ties, only three had been completed before action was suspended at 3:20 pm.

Bulgarian 26th seed Grigor Dimitrov was 6-4, 1-0 up on Alejandro Falla when the Colombian retired with an elbow injury.

Colombian women's qualifier Mariana Duque-Marino beat Kristyna Pliskova of the Czech Republic, 6-2, 6-0.

(China Daily 05/29/2013 page24)