The Swiss sensation Belinda Bencic marked her return to the big time on Saturday night, claiming the first victory against Petra Kvitova to secure the Dubai Free Tennis Championships title.
Outlasting the Australian Open finalist 6-3, 1-6, 6-2, Bencic sealed the third WTA crown of a still-embryonic career that first promised much before being beset by injury. Subsequently, the gap between trophy No 2 and No 3 spanned for almost four years.
Saturday's victory was also the 21-year-old's fourth in a row against a player ranked in the world's top 10 at the tournament.
"This is amazing. I just tried to put as many balls back as possible to create pressure," said Bencic.
"I feel great. We worked a lot on my fitness, so maybe that was the secret."
Bencic, who lost to 28-year-old Kvitova at the Australian Open in January, started quickly and broke her rival to love in the match's opening game before taking the first set in commanding fashion.
She faded in the second but raised herself for the decider and made the most of a number of Kvitova errors.
In an impressive run, Bencic beat Romanian world number two Simona Halep, sixth-ranked Elina Svitolina of Ukraine and Belarus' Aryna Sabalenka, who is ranked ninth, on her way to the final.
After the winning, she book a date at Skydive Dubai.
"We are in the plane anyway all the time, so …" Bencic joked after the most memorable of wins. "My dad is saying, 'Why to risk your life', stuff like that. There is no risk, I think. Bunjee jumping is worse.
"Skydiving, it's on my to-do list. We have to do it anyway in my life, so we can do it now. It's the first thing we will do in the morning. I'm providing a lot of heart attacks on the court. Now I'm going to provide them off the court."
Skydiving aside, Bencic concluded a remarkable week's work on a real high. In defeating Kvitova, the 21-year-old battled past a fourth top-10 player in Dubai, a run that included climbing back from six match points against Aryna Sabalenka in the last-16, seeing off reigning French Open champion Simona Halep in the quarters, then dispatching two-time defending champion Elina Svitolina in the last four.
