It’s been a tough season for Polona Hercog, having lost all her opening matches in nearly three months. However, at the 2012 Sony Swedish Open tournament in Bastad, the Slovenian finally found her found – winning all her five matches in close fashion and defeating Mathilde Johansson to successfully defend the title she’s won a year ago.
The dismal first half of the season saw Hercog’s ranking slip from number 36 to 86. Though she won’t gain ranking points for defending the title, she avoided another slip in next week’s ranking and this will help her further regain the momentum in the second half of the season.
“In a final everybody wants to win, so the nerves kick in a lot – I’m just happy I could calm myself down in the last two games,” Hercog said.
“It was a lot of fighting today and a lot of ups and downs, and I’m very happy to win. Second year in a row is amazing – to be invincible here for two years is unbelievable. Bastad has some kind of magic power for me, I guess!” she concluded.
