The spectacular championship match for the BNP Paribas Open title came down to just a handful of shots at the end.

The now No. 2 player in the world held a match point, but the World No. 1 won a battle of backhands to level the third-set tiebreak at 6-all. After an errant backhand from Elena Rybakina, Aryna Sabalenka served up one more unreturnable offering and emerged after more than two-and-a-half hours with a 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (6) victory.

“I’m super happy with the last three points of the match,” Sabalenka said on Tennis Channel. “Couldn’t be happier than that.”

No, it doesn’t get any better than that.

Afterward Sabalenka, who displayed a wide range of emotions (and one cracked racquet) during the match, was oddly serene, tilting her head back and covering her eyes with her hands. After a number of devastating losses in recent finals, it was a sublime feeling of relief that descended on Sabalenka.

“Thank God, I got this trophy,” Sabalenka, a first-time champion at Indian Wells, said as she hefted that massive chunk of crystal in the post-match ceremony.

Three years ago, Rybakina prevailed over Sabalenka in the final here and just a year ago, it was teenager Mirra Andreeva who snatched away the title. Sabalenka has been the No. 1 player on the WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz for 81 consecutive weeks now, but that loss in the desert was one in a recent series of devastating defeats in championship finals.

Last year in Melbourne, it was Madison Keys, followed a few months later by Andreeva. Jelena Ostapenko was the winner in Stuttgart, Coco Gauff got the best of her at Roland Garros before the rising Rybakina was better in the WTA Finals and this year’s Australian Open. That made Rybakina 4-1 against Sabalenka in finals.

That three-set loss in Melbourne is the only mark against Sabalenka this year in 18 matches. The win ended Rybakina’s streak of 12 straight match-wins against Top 10 players.

There were so many opportunities in these sweltering conditions for Sabalenka to get down on herself, to dwell on her failures in those big moments.

·      Rybakina might be the only player with the ability to overpower Sabalenka, and through 10 games, she was up a set and a break.

·      Sabalenka served for the match at 5-4 in the third set, but Rybakina stayed alive when nerves seemed to enter the equation.

·      After converting all three break-point opportunities, at 5-all Sabalenka suddenly, almost inexplicably, went 0-for-5.

·      Rybakina was serving for the match at 6-5 in the tiebreak, but Sabalenka’s backhand blast saved her.

“As I said before going to this final, I am so tired of losing these big finals,” Sabalenka told reporters. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, players were playing incredible tennis, but still I managed to fight through and to get my opportunity, and I didn’t use it so many times.

“So in this final, the way I started the first set and then the first game of the second set, I was really not happy with that. I was just trying to find something, find a way to get this win for myself, to feel more confident going into the next final.”

That last serve, which Rybakina couldn’t put in play, was typical of the sensational service week that Sabalenka had in the Coachella Valley. Sabalenka finished the match with 10 aces and only three double faults, winning 40 of 60 first-serve points and a more-remarkable 27 of 48 on second serve.

Sabalenka came into the final having won 46 of 48 service games. And while Rybakina managed to break her three times, Sabalenka finished 58-for-63, (.921) for the tournament.

This was the first time the World No. 1 lost the first set of the Indian Wells final and came back to win since the tournament’s inception in 1989.

This is Sabalenka’s 10th WTA 1000 title — and her sixth different event: Wuhan, Doha, Madrid, Cincinnati, Miami and Indian Wells. The short list of 10-plus WTA 1000 champions: Serena Williams (13), Iga Swiatek (11), Victoria Azarenka (10) and Sabalenka.

“It was super hot,” Sabalenka said. “I was dying there in the tiebreak, but I also saw that she was also not feeling her best. So I was trying to push myself basically to the limit.

“I’m super happy that in those last three points of the match, I was able to pull out really great tennis and get the win. That backhand [on match point down] that I hit was definitely something incredible and something I’ll be re-watching and reminding myself in other matches that I can hit like that — and I have to go after these shots.”