She admits everyone thinks she’s crazy but 42-year-old Japanese Kimiko Date-Krumm expects to be playing grand slam tennis for years to come.

The record-breaker’s Australian Open campaign remains alive after her second-round 6-2 7-5 win over Israeli Shahar Peer.

In the first round, she became the oldest player to win at the championship in the Open era when she ousted 12th seed Nadia Petrova 6-2 6-0.

Last year, she showed she might be finally slowing down – for the first time in her career, she failed to reach the third round at a major.

So she decided to step up a gear, something she will need to do if she is to play at the elite level for another five years, which is her goal.

“But not, not easy, not easy,” she said. “I need new body.”

She gets support from her peers who have long since retired, although they question her motivation.

“Everybody say to me, you are crazy. First word is always, you are crazy. But they support me a lot,” she said.

“When I see Steffi (Graf), of course, she say to me ‘You should stop now and make the baby’.”

Date-Krumm has another severe test on Saturday when she meets the winner of the match between 17th-seeded Czech Lucie Safarova and Serb Bojana Jovanovski.