Polona Hercog (, born 20 January 1991) is a Slovenian professional tennis player. Her career-high WTA rankings are world No. 35 in singles and No. 56 in doubles. She has won five titles on the WTA Tour, three in singles and two in doubles. Hercog also has had success on the ITF Women's Circuit, winning 19 singles and five doubles titles.
Partnering with Jessica Moore, she won the French Open and Wimbledon junior titles in the doubles competition in 2008.
Early and personal life Hercog was born in Maribor, Slovenia, to florist Romana and bar owner Vojko.Sony Ericsson WTA Tour|Players|Info (Biography)|Polona Hercog As a four-year-old she began playing in the local tennis clinic opened by Mima Jaušovec, and at age 14 moved to Italy to train professionally. Hercog is fluent in Slovenian, English, and Italian, and cites Justine Henin as her role model. She currently resides in Doha, Qatar and practises in Budapest.
Career In September 2007, Hercog received a wildcard and made her WTA Tour debut at the Slovenia Open, losing to Elena Vesnina in three sets.
2008: Juniors doubles majors & first ITF Circuit titles Hercog reached the singles quarterfinals at both the junior French Open and Wimbledon. In doubles, she and Australian Jessica Moore won two Grand Slam titles together, the French Open and Wimbledon; the latter was the final tournament of her junior career. On 7 July, Hercog achieved a career-high ITF junior ranking of No. 8.
In early 2008, she also won two ITF titles ($10k) and reached the final of a $25k event. Hercog then participated in the İstanbul Cup, coming through qualifying to reach the main draw, where she lost in the first round to eighth seed Tsvetana Pironkova. At the same tournament, she reached the final of the doubles competition partnering with New Zealand's Marina Erakovic. Ranked No. 215, she made her Grand Slam debut in the qualifying competition of the US Open, losing to Sandra Záhlavová in the first round.2008 US Open Qualifying Draw at the International Tennis Federation
2009 In April 2009, Hercog entered the Morocco Open in Fez via qualifying, defeating seventh seed Roberta Vinci to reach the quarterfinals, where she lost to second seed Alisa Kleybanova. At that year's French Open, she qualified for the main draw and upset 23rd seed Kleybanova before losing to Aravane Rezaï in the second round. On 5 July, she debuted in the top 100 of the rankings for the first time at No. 89. At the US Open, Hercog was beaten by American wildcard Christina McHale in the first round. She also played the Luxembourg Open, defeating Maria Elena Camerin in the opening round. She then lost to Sabine Lisicki in two sets. Hercog reached the second round of the 2009 Allianz Cup in Sofia, losing to Bojana Jovanovski.
2010 Hercog began her season at the Auckland Open where she lost to Shahar Pe'er in the first round.
At the Mexican Open in Acapulco, Hercog reached her first WTA Tour singles final and won her first WTA doubles title. She defeated Rossana de los Ríos in the first round, Alizé Cornet in the second, Ágnes Szávay retired from the quarterfinals match when Hercog was leading by a set, and Carla Suárez Navarro in two sets in the semifinals.Sony Ericsson WTA Tour: Hercog Awaits In Final (26 February 2010) In the final, she lost to top seed and former world No. 1, Venus Williams, despite winning the first set.Sony Ericsson WTA Tour: Venus: Queen of Acapulco (27 February 2010) Partnering with Barbora Záhlavová-Strýcová, she won her first tour doubles title, beating the Italian duo Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci.
At the Indian Wells Open, Hercog defeated Raluca Olaru in the first round and was defeated by 11th seed Marion Bartoli in the second round. She caused an upset in the second round of the French Open by defeating No. 24, Lucie Šafářová.
In Portorož, she reached the semifinals, was up a set against Anna Chakvetadze but then lost the match in three sets. Seeded sixth at the Danish Open in Copenhagen, she had a chance to take revenge on Anna Chakvetadze as they met in the quarterfinals. Hercog lost the match, this time in straight sets.
2011 Hercog began the year at the Brisbane International where she lost in the first round to Iveta Benešová in two sets. Seeded second in qualifying at the Sydney International, Hercog lost in the first round to Jill Craybas. At the Australian Open, she lost in the first round in a close match to world No. 46, Anastasija Sevastova.
After the Australian Open, Hercog played at the 2011 Fed Cup World Group II against Germany. She defeated Julia Görges, however, she lost to Andrea Petkovic in straight sets. Slovenia lost to Germany 1–4. Seeded second at the Copa Colsanitas, she defeated Pauline Parmentier in the first round. In the second round, she lost to Petra Martić. Seeded second at the Abierto Mexicano, Hercog lost in the first round to Lourdes Domínguez Lino. She then stayed in Mexico for the Monterrey Open. Seeded eighth, Hercog defeated Angelique Kerber in the first round 6–3, 6–3. She then reached the semifinals where she lost to top seed Jelena Janković in two sets. At the Indian Wells Open, Hercog lost in the first round to Anastasija Sevastova. At the Miami Open, she lost in the first round to Chanelle Scheepers in three sets.
Hercog began her clay-court season at the Andalucia Tennis Experience. She lost in the first round to Laura Pous Tió, 1–6, 2–6. Next, Hercog played at the Morocco Open where she got revenge on Chanelle Scheepers by defeating her in the first round. However, she withdrew from her second-round match against Melanie Oudin due to an ankle injury. At the Barcelona Open, Hercog won her first-round match against lucky loser Jamie Hampton. In the second round, she easily beat Mirjana Lučić. In the quarterfinals, she lost to Laura Pous Tió in three sets.
2012
Hercog began the year at the Brisbane International. She retired trailing 6–1, 4–1 in her first-round match against seventh seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova due to a low back injury. Seeded third in qualifying at the Sydney International, Hercog lost in the final round of qualifying to seventh seed Ekaterina Makarova. However, she received a lucky loser spot into the main draw. In the first round, Hercog lost to eighth seed Marion Bartoli. At the Australian Open, she lost in the first round to 22nd seed Julia Görges.
After the Australian Open, Hercog represented Slovenia for Fed Cup against Japan. She lost both of her rubbers to Kimiko Date-Krumm and Ayumi Morita. Japan went on to defeat Slovenia 5–0. At the Open GDF Suez, Hercog lost in the first round to Chanelle Scheepers in straight sets. She suffered another first-round loss at the Qatar Open to Tsvetana Pironkova. Seeded second for qualifying at the Dubai Championships, she lost in the final round of qualifying to Aleksandra Wozniak. Entering the main draw as a lucky loser, Hercog lost in the first round to world No. 21, Daniela Hantuchová. Ranked 38 at the Indian Wells Open, she lost in the first round to wildcard Jamie Hampton, 0–6, 1–6. At the Sony Ericsson Open, Hercog got revenge on qualifier Jamie Hampton defeating her in the first round 6–1, 6–3. In the second, she lost to seventh seed Marion Bartoli.
Hercog began her clay-court season at Charleston. Seeded 14th, she beat Kimiko Date-Krumm in the first round and American Varvara Lepchenko in the second. In the third round, Hercog upset third seed Marion Bartoli. and in the quarterfinals, 13th seed Nadia Petrova, 6–1, 6–2 to reach the semifinals where she was crushed by ninth seed Lucie Šafářová, 6–0, 6–0. Seeded eighth at the Barcelona Ladies Open, Hercog retired in her first round match against Sorana Cîrstea after losing the first set 4–6 due to dizziness. Seeded ninth at the Estoril Open, she defeated Tamira Paszek in the first round 6–0, 6–3. In the second round, Hercog retired trailing 6–4, 3–0 to Carla Suárez Navarro due to a right foot injury. Ranked 37 at the Madrid Open, Hercog lost in the first round to Shahar Pe'er 3–6, 5–7. At the French Open, she was defeated in the first round by Ayumi Morita.
At Wimbledon, Hercog lost in the first round to qualifier Kristýna Plíšková.
After that, she competed at Palermo where she was upset in the first round by Irina-Camelia Begu. Hercog then played at the Swedish Open as the defending champion and prevailed again, defeating Mathilde Johansson in the final. Representing Slovenia at the London Olympics, Hercog was defeated in the first round by María José Martínez Sánchez.
She played one warm-up tournament before the US Open. At the Texas Open. She faced Kiki Bertens in the first round, and won the first set 6–4 when Bertens retired due to a right abdominal injury. In the second round, she lost to third seed and eventual champion Roberta Vinci. At the US Open, Hercog was defeated in the first round by fifth seed Petra Kvitová.
At the Korea Open, she lost in the first round to eighth seed Ekaterina Makarova. Seeded 11th for qualifying at the Pan Pacific Open, Hercog lost in the first round of qualifying to wildcard Kurumi Nara. She qualified for the China Open beating 17th seed Mathilde Johansson and Gréta Arn. In round one, Hercog led 5–7, 6–4, 3–0 before Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova retired due to a gastrointestinal illness. In the second round, she defeated Ekaterina Makarova in a very close match. In the third round, Hercog lost to second seed and eventual finalist Maria Sharapova. Her final tournament of the year was at the Osaka Open. She lost in the first round to eventual champion Heather Watson.
Hercog ended the year ranked No. 80.
2013
At the Australian Open, she was defeated in the first round by 21st seed Varvara Lepchenko.
Seeded 17th for qualifying at the French Open, she beat Ajla Tomljanović in the first round of qualifying, but in the second round she lost to Grace Min. After the French Open, Hercog played the 25k-tournament in Maribor, Slovenia. As the top seed, she won the tournament defeating Ana Konjuh in the final. At the 100k-tournament in Marseille, she was defeated in the semifinals by top seed Anabel Medina Garrigues. Competing at the first edition of the Nürnberger Versicherungscup, Hercog upset second seed Klára Zakopalová in the first round. In the second round, she beat Julia Cohen in two sets. In the quarterfinals, Hercog was defeated by fifth seed Lucie Šafářová.
Seeded fourth for qualifying at Wimbledon, Hercog lost in the second round of qualifying to Petra Cetkovská.
At Palermo, she was defeated in the second round by second seed Roberta Vinci. Hercog won the ITS Cup as the top seed beating Katarzyna Piter in the final. Seeded sixth at the Baku Cup, Hercog lost in the first round to Galina Voskoboeva.
Hercog qualified for the Cincinnati Open defeating ninth seed Lourdes Domínguez Lino in the final round of qualifying. In the first round, she beat world No. 19, Dominika Cibulková, 6–2, 6–4. In the second round, Hercog lost to sixth seed Sara Errani. At the US Open, Hercog was defeated in the first round by 24th seed Ekaterina Makarova.