Tamarine Tanasugarn beat Kimiko Date Krumm 7-5, 6-7 (4), 6-1 in the Japan Women's Open final Sunday, spoiling the 40-year-old Japanese player's bid to become the oldest WTA Tour singles winner.
The 33-year-old Thai broke the sixth-seeded Date Krumm twice in the third set to take control in a match that lasted 3 hours, 7 minutes.
''I tried to be more aggressive in the third set and I finally made it,'' said Tanasugarn, who claimed her fourth career title. ''This is a great feeling and hopefully I can continue to play like this and get a good start to 2011.''
Date Krumm, who turned 40 last month, was bidding to become the oldest player to win a WTA singles title. Billie Jean King won in Birmingham in 1983 when she was 39 years, 7 months, 23 days. Date Krumm is already the second oldest player to win a title after her victory in Seoul last year at 38 years and 11 months.
''I just tried my best and fought as hard as I could,'' Date Krumm said. ''Nobody wants to lose, so I tried everything. Now I'll play some ITF events followed by the Asian Games, so I'll be continuing to play tennis the rest of the year.''
Date Krumm, who ended a 12-year retirement in April 2008, beat defending champion Samantha Stosur of Australia in the quarterfinals.
