Just as Svetlana Kuznetsova did exactly two weeks ago at Wimbledon, Dane Caroline Wozniacki suffered a disappointing loss on her birthday Saturday.

The top-seeded Wozniacki, who turned 19 today, dropped the final of the Swedish Open in Bastad to unseeded Spaniard Maria Jose Sanchez Martinez 7-5, 6-4. It was Martinez's second title of the year (and of her career), with her first coming on the clay courts of Bogota back in February.

Swedes and Danes are extremely close both geographically and culturally, and since there is no WTA event in Denmark this is as close to a home tournament as Wozniacki has. Bastad is only about thirty miles of water away from Denmark, so she had plenty of crowd support from visiting Danes as well as Swedes rooting for a Scandinavian champion.

Wozniacki's loss was disappointing, to be certain, but hardly one to be ashamed of. Martinez Sanchez played phenomenal singles and doubles all this week, using an impressively varied arsenal of slices, lobs, and drop-shots to throw the World #9 Wozniacki off of her baseline-hugging, punching style.

Maria Jose Sanchez Martinez has been the least talked about breakout players of 2009, most likely because her name takes so long to say that it precludes easy conversation. Sanchez Martinez, a rare late bloomer in tennis, will break into the top 40 on Monday for the first time in her career at the ripe old age of 26, after turning pro back in 1996. Sanchez Martinez's ranking has moved up almost fifty spots already this year, and could keep climbing into grand slam seed territory if she keeps up her form the second half of the year.

Martinez Sanchez is the rare Spanish player who is comfortable coming to net, and does so on clay perhaps more than any WTA player. Her aggressive style and deep ground strokes have given even the top players trouble, as she managed to win sets off both Dinara Safina and Serena Williams earlier this year. As evidenced by her two titles and a quarterfinal in Rome, clay is her best surface. She's done well on grass in years past as well, so a strong stint on the fast US hard courts is hardly out of the question.

If you're looking for a dark horse few have heard of to make a nice run at this year's US Open, she's your girl.

Maybe it's just the section of stadium shown. Maybe it's just the fact that Bastad isn't Tokyo in terms of population. Maybe it's just the let down of it being the week after packed Centre Court at Wimbledon.

Whatever the excuse may be, it isn't a good sign to see all of two people in the stands behind Flavia Pennetta for her second-round match at a main level WTA tour event. And even those two people don't look particularly riveted.

Four things that happened today in the world of tennis that you may have missed:

1. Still struggling to recover from a shoulder injury that had him out for well over a year, American Taylor Dent took a nice step toward regaining his old form by securing a relatively routine 6-2, 6-1 win over Brazilian Marcos Daniel in Newport. The grass at Newport should help Dent's serve-and-volley game immensely, hopefully giving him the springboard he needs to get back into the top 200. The previous time Dent won a match in the main draw of an ATP tournament was way back in April. His opponent in that match? Marcos Daniel. When you got 'em, you got 'em.
2. The top two ranked Italians on the WTA Tour, Flavia Pennetta and Francesca Schiavone, met today in the first round of the hard court tournament in Bastad, Sweden. The #3 seed Pennetta beat recent Wimbledon quarterfinalist Schiavone 6-2, 7-5. It's an unfortunate draw for both in an otherwise soft first round. I cannot fathom why Pennetta came to Bastad this week in the first place, when there was a perfectly good obscure clay court tournament in Budapest to be played. No one loves obscure clay court tournaments the way Flavia Pennetta does.
   
3. There is something strange going on with the seeds in Budapest. Both Sara Errani (#7) and Lucie Safarova (#8) were served a bagel by their qualifier opponents. Even stranger, Alize Cornet (#2), who can only beat the traffic of late, managed to win her match over Galina Voskoboeva. I haven't seen photos, but I'm guessing Voskoboeva was playing without the use of one or more of her legs.
   
4. Small weeks for the main tours usually mean big weeks for the challenger circuits, and this week is no exception. The men haveThe women are in a $100k in Biarritz and a $75k in Zagreb, with some pretty nice fields at each (headlined by Lucie Hradecka and Rossanna De Los Rios, respectively). Cult fan favorite Zuzana Ondraskova picked up a nice 6-2, 6-0 win in Zagreb over the third-ranked Serb, Ana Jovanovic. In Serbian women's tennis, Jovanovic is only behind Jelena Jankovic (#6) and Ana Ivanovic (#11). Jovanovic is #229. That's quite the drop-off.