LONDON — When the world’s best players arrive in Paris this week for the French Open, where the qualifying tournament began Monday, one player will be conspicuous by her absence.

For the first time since she began her comeback in 2008, Kimiko Date-Krumm will not be in the field for a Grand Slam event, neither main draw nor qualifying. At the grand old age of 45 — grandmother territory in tennis terms — Date-Krumm has defied conventional sporting wisdom to be competitive on the WTA Tour, but recent knee surgery means a long road back if she is to continue playing.

Date-Krumm, of Japan, will turn 46 in September; she is three months older than Steffi Graf, the former No. 1 player who beat her in the semifinals at Wimbledon in 1996. Having made it as high as No. 4 in 1995, Date-Krumm was still ranked in the top 10 late in 1996 when she made the surprise announcement that she was quitting. After 12 years away, during which she barely picked up a racket, Date-Krumm returned at 37 and has been beating the odds ever since.

Just ask Maria Sharapova, Li Na, Sabine Lisicki, Garbiñe Muguruza, Maria Kirilenko, Daniela Hantuchova, Laura Robson and Heather Watson, all victims of Date-Krumm during her second career. All of them were cut down by her old-school style of play, featuring flat groundstrokes, hitting on the rise and skills at the net.