Polona Hercog of Slovenia lost the first seven games of the Sony Swedish Open final against world No.83 Mathilde Johansson, but revived, took the second set and survived her opponent's surge from 1-5 to 5-all in the third to eventually win 0-6 6-4 7-5, thus defending her Bastad title, where she had won her first and by today only WTA title.

The success is reviving Hercog's 2012 season, in which she hadn't won a match in two and a half months. Many first-round losses and withdrawals due to a back injury caused Hercog's slump in the rankings by 50 spots, to her current No.86.

En route to the title, before Johansson in the final, Hercog defeated Alexandra Panova in the first round, seed No.2 Julia Goerges in the second, Tsvetana Pironkova in the quarters and seed No.7 Mona Barthel in the semis.

The claycourt Bastad title has brought Hercog $37,000. (source: WTA Tour, photo via Swedish Open)

The wedding bug has hit the WTA. Our newly-launched WTA Players and their Boyfriends/Husbands series is getting more updates than expected. Karolina Sprem wasn't the only women's tennis player saying "yes" over the weekend. On Saturday, July 14, Spain's 29-year-old Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez married her boyfriend Juan Domingo. Lots of thanks to the Twitter fan account VamosMJMS! that provided me with her husband's name and the wedding photos. Read more »

Just days after our reader Anastasia suggested a WTA Players and their Boyfriends/Husbands series, we already have a good reason to launch it - two years into their relationship, women's tennis player Karolina Sprem and ATP star Marcos Baghdatis decided to tie the knot this weekend in the bride's native Croatia. Read more »

Alize Cornet, former world No.11 and current No.73, won the Nurnberger Gastein Ladies without dropping a set all week, even though her straight-set victory in the final against Yanina Wickmayer was a close affair, as the seventh-seeded Cornet was serving at 4-5 0-15 in the first set and 5-6 15-30 in the second.

Before beating the second-seeded Wickmayer, Cornet defeated Edina Gallovits Hall in the first round, then Sacha Jones, Estrella Cabeza Candela, and third seed Ksenia Pervak in the semis.

Cornet is ecstatic to have won her second WTA title and her first since Budapest 2008 at her favorite tournament where she feels at home.

Top seed in singles at the Bad Gastein was Julia Goerges and she fell in the first round already. However, the German made up for the loss by winning her fourth doubles title and her first teamed up with best friend Jill Craybas. In the final they defeated No.1 seeds Anna-Lena Groenefeld and Petra Martic, 6-7(4) 6-4 11-9. (via WTA Tour, photo: Ralf Reinecke)

Remember the recent celebration of Women's Tennis Blog's fifth birthday and the prize of a necklace with a crystal tennis ball pendant made by the crafty hands of Emily Austin? The prize is now adorning the neck of the lucky contest winner Lily Li, but I fell in love with the necklace so much that I had to have one for myself. I asked Emily if she would be so kind as to make one for me, and she really gladly agreed, offering me the biggest pendant there is!

Emily disposes with more than 100 Swarovski colors and I found fuschia absolutely adorable. The necklace survived shipping all the way from Arizona to Serbia and pleasently surprised me last Saturday evening in my mailbox. When I opened the gift, the beauty of it stunned me, really, the necklace is beyond wonderful and you can see that Emily puts a lot of love and patience in her work.

The pendant is much bigger than it seems in the images on Emily's website, and my photos here are giving it more justice (thanks to my talented photographer friend Marija Veljkovic!). The detailing of the entire piece is astonishing. The ball is super shiny with nice white beading imitating the white cloth of a tennis ball. The loop is also glammed up, with shiny crystals, adding another beautiful touch to the item as a whole.

The silver necklace is of excellent quality, it greatly exceeded my expectations. It looks expensive and the connector has a wonderful little heart as a detail, with engraved name of the artist "Emily Austin".

If you're looking for buying jewelry as a present or for yourself, I assure you that you won't regret if you order from Emily, a skillful woman hidden in Scottsdale, Arizona. She will make the sparkly item of jewelry based on your color, style and size of choice. You can choose between tennis ball, golf, football, heart or star pendants, wedding jewelry, earrings, bracelets, or whatever you wish. Just browse through Emily's website to see the main things that are on offer, but you can also contact her via  email or telephone and I'm sure she would be glad to answer your specific need.