Dinara Safina of Russia secured her first WTA title in more than a year and half by defeating top seed Martina Hingis in a three-set thriller at the Australian Women's Hardcourts Championship on Saturday.

The world number 11 took two hours and 10 minutes to beat the Swiss star 6-3 3-6 7-5 as she claimed her first tournament victory since Prague in May 2005.

Seeded second, the 20-year-old Safina appeared to have the odds stacked against her after a gruelling Friday that saw her defeat Israel's Shahar Peer in a three-set semi-final before teaming up with Katarina Srebotnik in a doubles victory against Vania King and Nicole Pratt.

In contrast, Hingis was on the court for less than an hour on Friday, reaching the final after last four opponent Tathiana Garbin was forced to retire in the opening set with breathing difficulties brought about by a viral illness.

Hingis had won both previous meetings against Safina but it was the big-hitting Russian that took the opening set 6-3 before Hingis battled back to win the second set by the same score.

The players had a break each in the third set to take the score to 6-5 in Safina's favour before the Russian broke Hingis once more to clinch victory.