20 years after Date-Krumm won her first match down under, she's favored to win again.

Tennis, more than any other sport, is dominated by young athletes and it's rare for a 39 year old to be favored to beat a 22 year old in a heads up match.

However that is precisely the situation we have with the first round match between Kimiko Date-Krumm and Yaroslava Shvedova at this year's Australian Open.

Date-Krumm hasn't won a match at the Aussie since 1996 and it's been almost 20 years to the day since her first big victory in Melbourne, a third round upset of American Pam Shriver, the 11th seed in 1990.

For those that haven't been following tennis for decades, Date-Krumm was an outstanding player in the 1990's.  She retired from tennis at a young age in the mid-90's and, unlike Fabrice Santoro who seems to play some sort of farewell tournament every 4 months, Date-Krumm stayed put, at least until about a year ago when she decided to make a comeback. 

While she's got the better end of a coin toss in the first round of the Aussie this year, once upon a time Date-Krumm almost made it big time in Melbourne.

She scored a quarterfinal victory over 4th ranked Spaniard Conchita Martinez in 1994 but then she, Date-Krumm, drew Steffi Graf.  Like practically everyone else from that time frame, that meant lights out for Kimiko Date, her name back then, and she never got close again in Melbourne.

But if the odds have anything to do with it, Date is close to the second round of the Australian Open this year as she has come in as slight favorite with bet365 to defeat Shvedova.

Her odds to win the match with that site are -162 (about 5/8) and she's both the sentimental favorite and the correct pick.

We're recommending betting Date-Krumm to win partly because she's less vulnerable to the effects of age on athleticism than seemingly everyone else in the world.  But mainly and more importantly, Date-Krumm finished 2009 very strong as she won a tour title and an ITF level title.

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