Agnes Szavay lifted a trophy for the first time since late 2007 Sunday in Budapest, after defeating top seed Patty Schnyder 2-6, 6-4, 6-2 to win the biggest title in her home country of Hungary.

Szavay seemed nervous throughout the first set and early in the second--understandable for someone playing her first final in over a year in front of family and friends. But she seemed to relax on time, and as the Hungarian crowd rallied around Szavay, Schnyder seemed to lose her spirit.

Szavay has quietly been having an excellent middle part of 2009 (except on her weakest surface, grass), and is definitely a name to keep an eye on during the US Open Series. She's played her best tennis on hard courts in hot weather, and there's no reason that the right draw couldn't see her match the success she had in Flushing Meadows in 2007.

Nice to see Agnes Szavay regaining the form some thought she'd never get back. The Hungarian made the finals of her home tournament in Budapest by trouncing Alona Bondarenko 6-1, 6-2 in front of an extremely partisan Magyar crowd. Combined with Wozniacki playing to near full crowd support in Sweden, there was an almost Davis Cup like atmosphere at the WTA events Saturday as well.

It’s been a long time since we’ve had a real bona fide lunatic player in top shelf of professional tennis. Too long. Luckily for us, Patricia Mayr of Austria, currently ranked # 71, appears ready and willing to fulfill that role.

Mayr, who is perhaps best known for making Anne Keothavong cry, is quickly establishing herself as a villain par excellence on the WTA Tour. Playing against Margalita Chakhnashvili of Georgia in a first round match in Budapest on Tuesday, Mayr began loudly shouting "come on" after every point won, be it on winner or Chakhnashvili error or double fault. At 6-0, 4-4, after Chakhnashvili had said "sorry" for a point won on a net cord bounce, Mayr walked up to the net and inexplicably flipped off her opponent.

Mayr's gesture, naturally, was not warmly received by the umpire, crowd, or Chakhnashvili, who refused to continue play. The tournament referee was called down to the outer court, where he let Mayr off with a warning.

Mayr went on to beat a clearly rattled Chakhnashvili 7-5 in the second to get the win, a victory that was unsurprisingly not punctuated with a handshake.

No further fallout from the match in the way of fines or sanctions have been reported, though Mayr was seen angrily storming out of the WTA office on site.

Karma may have had a hand in Mayr's second round match, which she led 6-0, 2-0 before falling to Swiss Timea Bacsinszky 0-6, 6-3, 6-4. Bacsinszky was finally able to get a read on Mayr's moonballing and establish control of her serve. Nice to see Bacsinszky back from that left knee injury that has kept her out of most all of 2009. She's a real fun player to watch, and hopefully she gets back in the mix soon.

For tennis fans longing to see Mayr’s madness for themselves, get excited because she is likely coming to a town near you! Mayr has played an absurd thirty-five tournaments in the last year, which puts her far into first place for tournaments played in the top 100. The next closest player only has thirty-one. Perhaps it’s the exhaustion that’s driving her to madness?

Whatever the reason for Mayr’s hatred of the world is, I'm happy to have it. In a sport that is becoming increasingly full of cookie cutter shreikers who are only passively aggressive in their on court behavior, Mayr represents an important step towards full on aggression that will eventually lead to straight up brawling and hair-pulling.

I, for one, can't wait.

Today in Budapest, second-seeded Alize Cornet, the tournament's defending champion, was unceremoniously drop-kicked out of the second round by Shahar Peer, by the score of 6-2, 6-0. Hardly a shocker, since I expressed surprise at her winning her first round match, but this loss still represents faceplant from grace, to say the least.

Cornet, who trailed 5-0 in the first set, has been in utter free fall of late. Going back to the Australian Open quarterfinal this year in which she blew match point vs. Dinara Safina, Cornet has been an astonishingly terrible 4-16 against players in the top 100. It's especially terrible considering Cornet was #11 in the world earlier this year.

Cornet, after her less than stunning first round upset at Wimbledon, chalked the loss up to breathing problems. Maybe those microscoping nostrils are finally catching up to her? In all seriousness, it would seem as though having a nose not fit for heavy breathing could be a large cause of her difficulties. Though that theory doesn't explain how those same-sized nostrils took her within one spot of the top ten several months ago.

Cornet is facing big points coming off on the summer hard court swing, but she isn't defending any major points in the post US Open indoor swing. Regardless of what happened last year, she could easily find herself unseeded at the Australian Open if she doesn't get herself together fast.

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.