Cameron Norrie capped a breakout year by winning tennis's "fifth-major", storming to a three-set victory over Nikoloz Basilashvili in the final of the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells on Sunday.
The 26-year-old won 3-6 6-4 6-1 in an hour and 49 minutes, recovering after being down a break at 3-1 in the second set to secure his second career title in his finest year on the circuit.
Norrie, who started the week ranked 26th, is now guaranteed a top-20 position and has become Britain's new number one.
He was the first British player to reach the final at one of the ATP's nine elite Masters 1000 events since Andy Murray triumphed in Paris in 2016 and is becoming a similarly formidable presence on the circuit as the Scottish former world number one once was.
"It means so much to me, my biggest title. I'm so happy, I can't even describe it right now. It's absolutely massive for me and my team. I can't really believe it," he said in his on-court interview after the match.
It has been a terrific 2021 for the South African born player. Not only has Norrie won Indian Wells and taken his first title, also on hardcourts, at Los Cabos, Mexico, in July, he has made six finals in all - a feat matched only by world number on Novak Djokovic.
Norrie reached four other finals on three different surfaces - on the hardcourts of San Diego, the grass of Queen's, and on clay in Lyon and Estoril.
"I've been really enjoying my tennis and really been enjoying being out on court and competing in the big moments," he said.
"I'm just really pleased with how I handled the occasion, and I think I'm doing that a lot better this year. I know I lost in a lot of finals so it's nice to get the big one today."
Paula Badosa said she never lost belief in a roller-coaster year as she celebrated capturing the biggest title of her career with a 7-6(5) 2-6 7-6(2) victory over Victoria Azarenka.
The 23-year-old has had to overcame injuries and mental health struggles in recent seasons and endured a tough start to 2021 after she became the only Australian Open player to test positive for COVID-19 in the leadup to the Grand Slam.
Badosa has been on the rise ever since and defeated French Open winner Barbora Krejcikova, three-times Grand Slam champion Angelique Kerber and world number eight Ons Jabeur to reach the Indian Wells final where she beat former number one Azarenka.
"The first thing I've learned this week is that nothing is impossible. If you fight, if you work, after all these years, you can achieve anything," Badosa told reporters.
"And to dream. Sometimes you have tough moments. In my case I've been through tough moments. I never stopped dreaming. That kept me working hard and believing until the last moment. Today was the same, I'm really proud of it."
Badosa will now move to a career high world ranking of number 13.
"You know I had a roller-coaster year, disappointments and everything. But after all I've been through in my life it wasn't disappointment," Badosa said.
"That's the good part. When you suffer a lot, when you're young, when you have a bit of disappointment, you don't feel it like that. So that's the good part of what happened.
