Elena Vesnina of Russia clinched her third WTA title in style when she won the BNP Paribas Open (Indian Wells Masters) tennis tournament on Sunday.

The 14th seed, was made to sweat it out, particularly in three of her matches which all went the full distance (including a very tough final against fellow Russian, Svetlana Kuznetsova).

What made it more special for the Russian player, was sweeping some of the big names aside:

– Round of 64 : Defeated Shelby Rogers 6-4 7-5
– Round of 32 : Defeated (25) Timea Babos 6-4 1-6 6-4
– Round of 16 : Defeated (2) Angelique Kerber 6-3 6-3 
– Quarter-final : Defeated (12) Venus Williams 6-2 4-6 6-3
– Semi-final : Defeated (28) Kristina Mladenovic 6-3 6-4
– Final : Defeated (8) Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-7(8) 7-5 6-4

During the post match press conference, one of the officials rushed in to take the trophy, which needed to be handed to Roger Federer. Vesnina, along with the reporters all had a good laugh and she said “Give it to Roger”. Luckily, that trophy was just for show and she would be getting one to take home with her. Watch the fun moment here – https://youtu.be/-2N1Ir12OFc

Vesnina has now moved up to a career best of No. 13 on the WTA rankings, released yesterday.

Image courtesy of @GettyImages and the video courtesy of the BNP Paribas Open