Tiny Kimiko Date-Krumm takes a giant leap as an old pro at Wimbledon

Laura Robson, Madison Keys, Sloane Stephens be warned: the cult of youth at Wimbledon is under threat. In a bold and decisive blow against sporting ageism, Kimiko Date-Krumm on Thursday became the oldest woman to reach the third round of the All England Championships.

At 42, the Japanese player is now second only to the Australian Frank Sedgman, who reached the same stage in 1971 aged 43. And the way she was dashing around Court 12 in pursuit of a 6?4, 75 victory over the Romanian Alexandra Cadantu, there is no reason to suggest she will not be back next year. Donning slippers and putting your feet up in retirement looks an unnecessary prospect when you are playing this well.

It is not just in her birth certificate that Date-Krumm appears to be a representative of another age. A wispy, wiry 5ft??4in, she would be able to reach the shoulder of some of her more statuesque opponents these days only with the assistance of a set of step ladders. And she plays as if the last coaching manual she read was published in 1983.

In the era of the baseline grunter and back-of-court thrasher, whose only venture to the net is when spinning the coin at the start of a match, Date-Krumm is an old-fashioned serve and volleyer. The way she charges around the court, lobbing and dinking, applying a gentle, clever spin to her returns rather than a relentless thump, she is in danger of making the women's game fun to watch.

Particularly when, in the closing stages of the match, she suddenly turned ambidextrous and turned a right-hand backhand into a left-handed forehand winner. Though it was more her nationality than her game which had drawn the crowd to Court 18. Yesterday morning this was a corner of SW19 that was turning Japanese.

A good three quarters of the crowd in the court's one grandstand had flown in from Tokyo, there to watch the one female player of substance the nation has produced. If you think Britain is under-represented at Wimbledon, the world's third largest economy has rarely delivered on the lawns here. Date-Krumm's semi-final defeat to Steffi Graf in 1996 is the furthest anyone from the country has ever ventured.

Here is how long Date-Krumm has been around: she turned professional in 1989, the year before her Romanian opponent was born. After reaching as high as No4 in the world rankings, she retired soon after that tussle with Graf in 1996 and spent 12 years doing things other than tennis, like running marathons.

Then her husband, the German racing driver Michael Krumm, pointed out as she dashed round the court in recreational matches that she looked fit and lithe enough to give some of the upstarts of the circuit a game. So here she is, back and firing. If she is showing her age anywhere these days it is in her serve. Often, as she tossed the ball up, she had to apologise for not getting the trajectory right.

And when she did hit the thing, the ball did not exactly stay hit; 86 mph is not much of a top speed for a serve, Serena Williams mishits the ball harder than that. But what she lacked in power, the superannuated Japanese made up for in guile. She out thought rather than out fought her young opponent, breaking Cadantu's serve once in the first set and twice in the second in a victory that almost looked routine. Not that Date-Krumm was blase about it. Afterwards, grinning widely at her success, she spent a good half-hour signing autographs for dozens of enthusiastic fellow Japanese, who crowded the courtside.

As she did so, her achievement was making news back home. Wimbledon has not enjoyed widespread television coverage in Japan since she retired back in the 90s. Her third?round game, however, will be broadcast live. Mind, it is against Serena. You sense her bid to become the oldest person to make the fourth round may have to wait until next year.