World No.83 Kimiko Date-Krumm saw age catch up with her on Tuesday as the 42-year-old Japanese slid out at the French Open, losing her opening-round match to Australian ninth seed Samantha Stosur.

The veteran strove as best as she could but was no match for former US Open champion Stosur, who romped to a 6-0, 6-2 victory in just one hour four minutes.

It was only in the fourth game of the second set that Date-Krumm finally got on the score sheet as she triumphantly held serve and broke out into a relieved grin.

But Stosur, losing finalist three years ago, was not going to allow a possible upset to develop. And she promptly closed the door against a rival who at 42 years and 240 days became the third oldest player to compete in women's singles in the tournament - Martina Navratilova holding the record at 47 and 232 days from her 2004 showing.

Fully 57 players in this year's women's singles draw were not even born when Date-Krumm made her Roland Garros debut just a year shy of a quarter of a century ago, in 1989.

Stosur set off like a train, rattling off the opening set in just 21 minutes as her opponent fired a wayward forehand beyond the baseline.

A comparatively marathon game heralded the start of the second set as Stosur took fully six minutes to hold serve.

Date-Krumm then unsuccessfully disputed a line call as she let slip the opening point of the next game and looked thoroughly dispirited as a crunching Stosur forehand return found the line to break the Japanese to love.

Date-Krumm eked out a break chance in the following game.

But Stosur again worked her all around the court before leaving her marooned as another forehand found its dusty mark against the former world No.4.

A flicker of resistance then emerged as Date-Krumm, a semifinalist once each at Roland Garros, the Australian Open and Wimbledon in the mid-1990s, held for 1-3 and then hit a double-handed cross-court winner to hold for 2-4.

There was a further glint of feistiness from Date-Krumm as she challenged the umpire's finding that she had double-hit a forehand return, sliding in so doing to the brink of defeat at 2-5 down and she finally drove long to concede the contest.