Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, the world No.3 from Russia, overcame fifth seed Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia in an epic encounter to win the Strasbourg Open.
The Russian needed over three hours over play to claim a 6-7 (5-7) 7-6 (7-3) 7-6 (8-6) victory.
Pavlyuchenkova arrived to the tournament having won only four matches on the WTA Tour all year, but went on to win five in a row in Strasbourg to claim only her 12th career title.
At the end of a marathon third set, she saved two match points and forced a tiebreak to topple Cibulkova.
Pavlyuchenkova then broke into euphoric celebration after finally seeing off an enormous challenge from Cibulkova.