Kimiko Date Krumm became the first 40-something to beat a top-10 player on the WTA Tour when she ousted No. 8-ranked Samantha Stosur 5-7, 6-3, 7-6 (4) in the Japan Women's Open quarterfinals on Friday.
Date Krumm, who turned 40 on Sept. 28, missed a match point against the top-seeded Australian at 5-4 in the third set, but converted her second in the tiebreaker after more than two and a half hours.
Stosur's defense of the Osaka title was spoiled by making only two of a dozen break chances against 56th-ranked Date Krumm.
The Japanese star became the oldest to defeat a top-10 player in May when she topped then-No. 9 Dinara Safina at the French Open. That win, and the latest over Stosur, are Date Krumm's only wins over top-10 opponents since she ended a 12-year retirement in April 2008.
In the semifinals, she'll meet third-seeded Shahar Peer of Israel, who beat Date Krumm in 2008 in her first match in Osaka since she won the last of her four titles here in 1996.
Peer cruised past seventh-seeded Iveta Benesova of the Czech Republic 6-2, 6-0 in 54 minutes.
Second-seeded Marion Bartoli of France coasted to a 6-1, 6-2 win over Jill Craybas of the United States and will face another unseeded player, Tamarine Tanasugarn of Thailand.
Tamarine beat Taiwan's Chang Kai-chen 6-3, 2-6, 6-4.
