German Sabine Lisicki clinched her first WTA title by upsetting fifth-seeded Dane Caroline Wozniacki 6-2, 6-4 in the Family Circle Cup final on Sunday.
In a match between two teenagers, 16th-seeded Lisicki overwhelmed her opponent with a ruthless display of booming serves and powerful groundstrokes to seal victory in one hour 20 minutes.
The 19-year-old German broke Wozniacki, who had upset top-seeded Russian Elena Dementieva in the semi-finals, in the first and fifth games to sweep through the first set in less than half an hour.
Lisicki, who eliminated second seed Venus Williams in the third round, again broke Wozniacki in the fifth game of the second set before surviving a few anxious moments on serve in the 10th to seal victory on her sixth match point.
After hitting a forehand winner, the pony-tailed German jumped into the air in celebration before falling backwards on to the claycourt surface.
"I enjoyed the whole week and beating Venus really gave me some confidence," a beaming Lisicki said in a courtside interview. "I just stepped up my game and I won today. It's unbelievable.
"I felt really confident the whole week. I have practised well the last few months but I couldn't transfer it into the matches. Then it just clicked and everything was working in the matches as well."
World number 63 Lisicki, who will break into the top 50 for the first time when the rankings are issued on Monday, said she had felt jittery when serving for the match.
"I was a little bit nervous when I had my first match points but I think it is normal," the German said after firing down nine aces and hitting 33 winners against the 18-year-old Wozniacki.
"I am just a human being. Then I just started again, trying to fight to make each point and just to fight until the finish. And that's what I did."
Lisicki had appeared in only one previous WTA final, losing to Romanian Sorana Cirstea in Tashkent last year.
Wozniacki, who had been bidding for her fifth WTA title and second this year, said: "It was a tough match for me today and I want to congratulate Sabine on a good tournament.."
