TOKYO (AP)—French Open champion Francesca Schiavone beat local favorite Kimiko Date Krumm 6-3, 6-3 on Wednesday to advance to the quarterfinals of the Pan Pacific Open.
Date Krumm celebrated her 40th birthday on Tuesday with a win over Daniela Hantuchova in the second round, but was no match for the fifth-seeded Italian.
Schiavone overpowered Date Krumm with solid groundstrokes, breaking serve three times in the first set to take a 5-1 lead.
“In the first set, I was leading 5-1 but every point was close,” Schiavone said. “We were fighting for every single point and every game was very close, with lots of deuces.”
Date Krumm, who also beat defending champion Maria Sharapova in the first round, fought back in the second set to take a 3-2 lead but was broken in the seventh game and never recovered.
“In the second set when I broke for 4-3, that was when I knew I could win,” Schiavone said.
Date Krumm played last week in Seoul and said her busy schedule was a factor.
“This morning, I felt a little bit tired,” Date Krumm said. “She used a lot of spin and made me run very wide so I ended up tired.”
Date Krumm, who won the Tokyo tournament in 1995, turned professional in 1989 and retired in 1996, before resuming her career nearly 12 years later. Earlier this year, she became the oldest woman to beat a top 10 player when she defeated Dinara Safina at the French Open.
“I said to her at the end it was an honor to play her,” Schiavone said. “I’ve followed her career and she’s not just a great tennis player, she’s a great person. To come back and show the people anything is possible is really inspiring. And today we were playing on the senior tour - we were 70 together!”
Top-seeded Carolina Wozniacki of Denmark also reached the quarters, overpowering Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia 6-1, 6-2.
Wozniacki beat Pavlyuchenkova for the fifth straight time - and third time this year - and will meet No. 6 seed Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland in the quarterfinals. Radwanska beat Germany’s Andrea Petkovic 6-3, 6-3.
“I feel like I am playing good tennis,” Wozniacki said. “Today was a tough match even though the score was 6-1, 6-2 I really had to be focused. Anastasia is a good player.”
In other matches, second-seeded Vera Zvonareva of Russia beat Roberta Vinci of Italy 6-4, 6-0 to set up a quarterfinal against seventh-seeded compatriot Elena Dementieva, who beat another Italian, Flavia Pennetta, 6-4, 6-2.
American qualifier Coco Vandeweghe of the United States defeated Germany’s Julia Goerges 6-3, 6-0.