Daniela Hantuchova captured her first WTA Tour title with a shock straight-sets victory over Martina Hingis in the final of the Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells.

The Slovakian teenager defeated the number two seed 6-3 6-4 in one hour 15 minutes.

Hantuchova, 18, beat the Swiss star at her own game with a series of powerful drives from the baseline that Hingis had no answer to.

Hantuchova, seeded 18, earned 332,000 US dollars for winning the top prize and became the lowest seed to win a top WTA event (post-1980), breaking the record set by Jelena Dokic (number 14) of Yugoslavia in Rome last year.

Hantuchova overpowered Hingis with her groundstrokes, firing 30 winners.

She sailed to a 6-2 4-1 lead before the magnitude of the moment seemed to get the teenager.

Hingis twice broke Hantuchova's serve to reel off three of the next four games and move within a game of knotting the second set.

But the Bratislava-based youngster collected herself long enough to serve out for the match.

Hantuchova is the latest addition to the crop of power players who have knocked Hingis off the top of the tennis world.

The Swiss miss captured five out of nine Grand Slam titles from 1997-99.

But since then, she has lost three straight Australian Open finals - to Lindsay Davenport in 1999 and fellow American Jennifer Capriati each of the last two years.

"It's like a dream coming true," Hantuchova told pacificlifeopen.com. "I enjoyed every minute out there.

"This was my first final ever, in such an important tournament, and playing one of the greatest players and beating her the way I did was just unbelievable.

"I just tried to put pressure on Martina and move her around. Everything just came together."

Hingis added: "She just played very fearless, had nothing to lose. Somehow, she managed always to hit it on the lines or just inside the lines."