Aryna Sabalenka beat fierce rival Elena Rybakina in a thrilling final to secure her first Indian Wells title after more than two-and-a-half hours in the searing California heat.
The world No 1 fought back from a set down to win 3-6 6-3 7-6 (8-6), saving a match point in the final set tie-break before battling to her historic win.
The win follows Sabalenka's recent engagement and, and afterwards she flashed her engagement ring at the crowd and welcomed her new puppy onto the court to celebrate.
"What a week," she said, "getting a puppy, getting engaged and winning the title. I will definitely remember it the rest of my life."
"The whole point was to have A, B, C, D, E, and blah, blah, blah plans. Today, A, B and C definitely didn't work," Sabalenka told reporters after.
"So I had to basically run there and put as much ball back at her as possible, and when I felt more confident, I went back to my usual game which is an aggressive and dominating game.
"I'm super happy that I was able to progress that far and to have so many tools in my game, so that no matter what happens in the match, I'm able to still find the small things that are going to help me to win the match."
Rybakina, who will climb to world No 2 on Monday, went into Sunday's match with a head-to-head advantage in finals against Sabalenka, having won four to her opponent's one.
But Sabalenka, who had become the first world No 1 to reach the Indian Wells final in consecutive years since it began in 1989, improved that record with a determined display.
Rybakina won the first set 6-3 with some brilliant tennis, frustrating her opponent, who has been dominant throughout the tournament.
Rybakina then broke in the first game of the second set, but the Belarusian turned things around to win the set 6-3.
The rallies began to get longer as both players battled towards the end, and Sabalenka appeared on the brink of victory at 5-3.
But Rybakina dug deep to win three games on the bounce before Sabalenka held serve to take the tournament finale to a tie-break.
Sabalenka saved championship point with a phenomenal backhand winner, clinching victory when a Rybakina return went long.
Following her defeat, Rybakina said: "Congratulations to Aryna and her team. Hopefully we will play very soon again. Not the result we wanted but it's been a good couple of weeks."
Sabalenka said losing big finals in the past had helped her build mental strength.
"With so many finals I've lost, they also teach me a lot of things that the game is never done till it's done. So if it's a matchpoint, you still have a chance to get back into the game," Sabalenka said.
"That's something I learned, to be mentally strong no matter what. Though I lost so many big ones and painful ones, I'm still able to go out there, even when things are not going well, and stay focused and fight for it."
Following the classic, Your Site Tennis pundit Tim Henman said: "We talked about how hot it is but their resilience mentally and physically...they never took a backward step and in those most crucial moments still the quality of tennis never dipped.
"There was no let-up. One of the best matches I've seen for a few years."
He added: "When push came to shove, even when it hadn't gone her way in the third set, Sabalenka was just so focused, so resilient, she kept going for her shots.
"She was brave and on that match point, the backhand she crushed was absolutely amazing. Sabalenka was the worthy winner."
Tennis great Martina Navratilova said: "It would have been so easy to just give up. After losing the first set she threw her racket but she recovered right back and when she lost her serve she broke her back.
"She's got a tiger on her forearm and she played like one. It was a really fantastic effort from Aryna. It would have been easy to throw in the towel in this heat but she gave it everything she had and still could have lost but got the win."
On the Sabalenka-Rybakina rivalry, Henman said: "We've been blessed with so many great rivalries in the sport. We were thinking we were going to get Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner in the men's final and Sabalenka and Rybakina in the women's final but it doesn't always mean you're going to get an epic match.
"Sometimes somebody doesn't play well and the other dominates and I thought the beauty today was that both women really came out and played such amazing tennis. It was challenging conditions. We talked about how hot it is but their resilience physically and mentally as the match went on, they just never took a backward step. They knew the way they wanted to play each and every point.
"In those most crucial moments the quality of tennis never dipped. There were no nerves showing, there were very few double faults, just quality ball-striking."
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