KIMIKO DATE

Kimiko Date was born in Kioto (Japan) on 28th of September in 1970. She was a professional tennis player, she retired on 24th September in 1996, but she returned to tennis nearly 12 years later. She won her eighth WTA title at the 2009 Hansol Korea Open in Seoul, becoming the second-oldest player in the Open Era, after Billie Jean King, to win a singles title on the WTA Tour. Date announced her final retirement in September 2017 when she was 47 and she became the oldest player into the 100 best players ranking WTA.

She reached a career-high ranking of world No. 4 in 1995 and her best results in Grand Slam singles were semifinals of the 1994 Australian Open, the 1995 French Open and the 1996 Wimbledon Championships. She won 8 singles titles WTA and 6 doubles titles WTA.

As a curiosity she is left-handed, but was trained to play right-handed to follow Japanese custom.

In October 2017, she was included on the BBC's annual 100 Women list.

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