Polona Hercog won her maiden WTA title today at the Collector Swedish Open in Bastad by defeating Johanna Larsson 6-4 7-5 in the final.

The tournament had the pleasure of having two home players in the semifinals, Sweden's Top 2 Johanna Larsson and Sofia Arvidsson, but the winner couldn't go all the way and Slovenia's Hercog is celebrating her first trophy, while the world No.65 Larsson is now 0-2 in WTA finals, having lost in Portoroz last year to Anna Chakvetadze.

To win Bastad, the 53rd-ranked Hercog defeated Anna Tatishvili, Aravane Rezai, Vesna Dolonts, Barbora Zahlavova Strycova and finally Larsson. World No.1 Caroline Wozniacki was also in the field, but she retired against Arvidsson in the second round. (photo via Collector Swedish Open)

In the battle of two players without WTA titles in their CVs, the more experienced one triumphed and 31-year-old Alberta Brianti defeated 19-year-old Simona Halep 6-4 6-3 in the final of the the Grand Prix de SAR La Princesse Lalla Meryem in Fes, Morocco.

Interestingly, clay is not Brianti's surface of choice:  "It's not my favorite surface, but better late than never! I always try to improve my tennis and the last few years I've really been playing the best tennis of my career."

The unseeded Italian defeated Melanie Oudin 7-5 5-7 6-0 in the quarterfinals before having a walkover to reach the final as former world No.1 Dinara Safina withdrew with gastrointestinal illness.

The seventh-seeded Halep is now 0-2 in WTA finals – last year she lost at the same tournament to Iveta Benesova. Brianti was also playing her second final, her previous one was in 2009 in Guangzhou. (photo: Richard Fisher)

Italian team was short of Francesca Schiavone and Flavia Pennetta, and world No.37 Roberta Vinci leading the weakened team wasn’t enough to make Italy closer to their third straight Fed Cup title. Italy lost the Fed Cup semifinal against Russia 5-0.

The withdrawals of the fourth-ranked Schiavone (she wanted to prepare for her French Open title defence) and the 20th-ranked Pennetta (absent with shoulder injury) provoked Vinci to criticize her compatriots.

"If they didn't want to come it's their problem," said Vinci who lost to Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-2 6-7(4) 6-1 and to Vera Zvonareva 6-4 6-2 in the Fed Cup semifinals.

In the other semifinal, Czech Republic won the decisive doubles (Iveta Benesova and Barbora Zahlavova Strycova defeated Yanina Wickmayer and Kirsten Flipkens 6-4 6-4) and thus defeated Belgium 3-2. Read more »

Dear readers,

The celebration of Women's Tennis Blog's fourth birthday has officially come to a close and it is my pleasure to announce the winners of all the three contests: Jacob has won the Nike Maria Sharapova Oz Open Ace dress provided by Keller Sports, MJ_Weber is the winner of the Twitter contest and one of the two t-shirts provided by Fetch Sports, and Lenore was lucky in the third contest and she will receive the Naemeh Shirazi's sculpted lace earrings provided by Stevie's Artisans. Read more »

The fourth birthday celebration of Women's Tennis Blog is slowly coming to a close. Our last contest, as part of the festivities, is including Naemeh Shirazi's sculpted lace earrings provided by Stevie's Artisans. You can win one of the seven pairs of earrings shown in this article if you complete the simple step I am about to explain.

Answer the following question in the comments below this contest announcement: Which female tennis player is in the picture? Of those of you who qualify with the right answer, I will randomly draw one person who will be the lucky winner.

Help: she is a three-time Grand Slam champion. Should be easy. Read more »

The week of Women's Tennis Blog's fourth birthday celebration is in full swing. For the adidas and Nike giveaway I had set the deadline of April 3rd 1 p.m. CET but as there were a few more people that joined later, I decided to accept their submissions as well and I will be accepting everyone who joins by April 5th 1 p.m. CET. But let's move on and offer you another opportunity to win free stuff - a Fetch t-shirt. Remember Fetch? The LA-based tennis brand I introduced to you two months ago.

In order to diversify these contests a bit, I decided to make this one revolve around Twitter. I suppose that many of you don't have a Twitter account, but opening one is simple, free and it's worth it – not only because a lot of WTA stars are there, but also because now it can open you a door for winning a Fetch t-shirt.

To become eligible to win the Billie Jean tee or the Vamos tee you should be Women's Tennis Blog's follower on Twitter and in response to the tweet announcing this contest (an automatic tweet that will go live the moment I publish this post) you should write a reply saying: "______________________ I'd love to win a @FetchSport t-shirt at your #contest". The bold text from the quoted sentence you should copy-paste, while you can fill the first part of the sentence with any text you like. Get creative!

Here's an example: I love tennis fashion and I'd love to win a @FetchSport t-shirt at your #contest.

So there are two steps:

1) You should be Women's Tennis Blog's follower on Twitter;

2) You should write the specific reply (example shown above) to the automatic tweet announcing this contest.

The winner, chosen randomly from those of you who join and qualify, will choose from one of the two t-shirts presented above, available in sizes from small to xlarge.

If you have any questions or uncertainties, don't hesitate to ask me!

The contest closes on Thursday, April 7th, at 4 p.m. CET.

Good luck!

Update: This contest is closed now.

What can be more rewarding than doing what you love and having people all over the world supporting you and sharing your joy? Blogging has given me exactly that, and it's not only readers that are always there with beautiful words and understanding, fellow tennis bloggers are also by my side, even if I'm not in touch with them daily. One of such bloggers is Erwin of Tennis Served Fresh. We started the blogging journey in about the same time, Erwin a little bit before me, and it's nice to have colleagues that are your peers when it comes to blogging.

When I turned on my laptop today and started going through my blog feed, I was surprised to see a picture of myself. Then I read a wonderful title: "It's nice to grow old with someone". In the article Erwin acknowledges how good it is to develop along someone, and invites his readers to join my giveaways. I'd like to mention that Tennis Served Fresh is the first blog/webpage that ever linked to Women's Tennis Blog and it made me ecstatic . It was at the time Women's Tennis Blog still looked like a construction site, without images, with no design, or anything. Just black text and plain purple and green header saying "women's tennis" on WordPress.com.

The title of TSF's post inspires me to mention one thing. When Aaress of On the Baseline sold her blog, I was very saddened because I felt like I lost one of just a handful of blogging peers and also, it made me feel old haha (the blog is still alive though, offering equally rich content). However, Rich of Down the Line and Diane of Women Who Serve are still there, persevering in doing an amazing job.

Thanks to my readers and my fellow bloggers, my fourth birthday party is a real festival! Cheers! (photo courtesy of my friend Brankica)

Dear readers,

I'm excited to announce that Women's Tennis Blog is four years old now and that I've made sure to celebrate the birthday in style – by organizing three giveaways. During the next seven days, and starting today, you will have an opportunity to WIN FREE STUFF HERE!

Before proceeding to prizes, I'd like to shortly reflect on the four years behind my work here at Women's Tennis Blog. My first article was published on March 31, 2007 and back then I simply started blogging because I had a lot of free time and I thought that writing online would be an interesting new thing to try out. I wasn't even thinking long-term, but I fell in love with blogging and the fact that I am a persevering person happened to make this blog what it is today.

Blogging has given me many rewards: writing about the sport that I love, meeting numerous good people from all over the world (it's wierd, but for the long period of four years I received maybe only 3-4 insulting comments, and you know how people can be harsh online), I've perfected my knowledge of the English language, and I've learned many things about the Internet world and trends. All of these things are giving me a sense of accomplishment, especially that I've been maintaining Women's Tennis Blog pretty much by myself for the whole time.

Rewards are also the praise you receive from people, as well as links from authorities such as BBC, Sports Illustrated, The New York Times, Blic (one of leading Serbian news sources) and many influential blogs. Also, I've never even imagined that I would interview tennis greats such as Lindsay Davenport, Tracey Austin and Chris Evert.

Moreover, how great it is to be able to obtain things for free and make people happy by giving them presents. In the coming days, actually starting from today, there will be three contests on Women's Tennis Blog and you will have a chance to easily win the following prizes:

1. Adidas Adizero tank and skort or Maria Sharapova's Oz Open Dress provided by Keller Sports

2. Fetch t-shirt

3. A pair of vintage earrings from Stevie's Artisans urban folk art shop

What do you think about the prizes? I think they're pretty cool!

Stay tuned, the first contest will be announced in just a few moments!

The National Foundation for Cancer Research is currently doing a nationwide yearlong fundraising campaign entitled "Game, Set, Match!" and I am glad to help them spread the word about it (obviously, the country in question is the USA). The campaign invites tennis teams to commit to donating proceeds from at least one match (or special event) to NFCR. The money raised would fund lifesaving research, and it’s a great way to utilize your passion to make a difference. The official press release follows.

Bethesda, Md. – March 30, 2011 – The National Foundation for Cancer Research is teaming up with tennis players around the country for a nationwide fundraiser entitled "Game, Set, Match!" Any tennis team, whether high school, college, or community-based, can participate by dedicating proceeds from one or more matches to be donated to NFCR.

"There are countless ways you can help fund cancer research, but a great place to start is by utilizing the talents you already possess," said Franklin C. Salisbury Jr., President of NFCR. "Fundraising programs like 'Game, Set, Match!' allow you to do what you love and help save lives at the same time." Read more »

Billie Jean King has posted stories about her career to a new iPhone app for storytelling, Broadcastr, so when you go past Madison Square Garden, you can hear King telling the story of her worst memory ever, how she lost a match despite leading 6-0 5-0 and how Rod Laver immensely helped her after the defeat. You can listen to King's story here.

Broadcastr lets anyone easily create and share audio recordings on an interactive map, so when you take a walk, you can automatically hear stories pinned to your physical location, like an audio tour of the whole world.

King's organization, WorldTeamTennis, is an official Broadcastr partner.  They'll be making more tennis stories available in the coming months. (photos via Broadcastr and Edwin Martinez1)