Polona Hercog

Polona Hercog (Slovene pronunciation: [pɔˈlóːna ˈxèːɾtsɔk], 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. 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 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.