24-year-old American Taylor Fritz has ended Rafael Nadal's 20 match win-streak to claim his maiden ATP Masters 1000 title at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells.
The American was exquisite in a 6-3, 7-6(5) victory, lifting his second title on the ATP Tour.
Incredibly, after injuring his ankle in his semi-final win over Andrey Rublev, Fritz wasn't even sure if he'd be able to take to the court on Sunday against Nadal.
"I can't even begin to describe how ridiculous it is that I was able to play how I could play today. I've never experienced worse pain in my life before a match," Fritz said.
"We did a lot of work leading up to the match and I went through a roller coaster of emotions before the match, from thinking there was no way I could possibly play to then doing all this work on the ankle, doing so much stuff to it. I came out here and it didn't really affect me at all."
Remarkably, Fritz took to the court and became the first American to win the singles title in Indian Wells since 2001.
On the women's side, 20-year-old Pole Iga Swiatek will rise to a new career-high ranking of World No. 2 after she claimed her 11th straight win to lift the Indian Wells title.
The No.3 seed claimed an impressive 6-4, 6-1 victory over No.6 seed Maria Sakkari to win the 2022 BNP Paribas Open, improving her unbeaten run at WTA 1000 tournaments in 2022 to 11-0.
Swiatek is the first Polish woman to win the Indian Wells singles title.
"At the beginning of the tournament, I wouldn't even think about winning, honestly," Swiatek said in her post-match press conference. "Of course, you have to believe in yourself, but I'm a realistic person," Swiatek said.
"Winning after playing so well in Doha is giving me a lot of confidence and kind of belief that I can do it...I wouldn't think of myself as someone who's ready to play two tournaments in a row and win it. For sure hard work is paying off."
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