The next-to-last point of the Australian Open final between Simona Halep and Caroline Wozniacki was the match in microcosm. For more than two and a half hours, the two players had shown tenacity and stamina and skill. It was nearly ninety degrees and brutally humid. Their bodies, pushed hard over the two-week tournament and three tight sets in the finals, were breaking down. It had been an uneven match, but there were long stretches of brilliance from both. They yanked each other from side to side, traded clean winners, dug out balls with defense, and dared each other to hit a good—and then a better—shot. Halep had been throwing her whole body into her whipping forehand. Wozniacki attacked with a fluid backhand. Both players are quick and natural movers, and they contested every shot.

Serving at 4–5, 30–30, Halep knew she had to make a first serve. She had double-faulted the point before, an error that likely said less about tight nerves than sheer exhaustion. For much of the third set, she had trouble pushing up for leverage on her serve; her legs were gone. She had put them through a lot. In the first round of the tournament, Halep badly rolled her ankle, landing on it so awkwardly that it seemed improbable that she could finish the match, let alone play deep into the tournament. Then, in the third round, she faced an inspired Lauren Davis, grinding out long rallies and trading aggressive shots in one of the most dramatic and well-played matches in recent memory. After nearly four hours, during which she saved multiple match points, Halep won the third set, 15–13. Then she played another epic match, against a resurgent Angelique Kerber, in which she saved yet more match points before winning 6–3, 4–6, 9–7.

Now, against Wozniacki, Halep found herself again playing from behind, deep in the third set. She was in her third Grand Slam final. She was the No. 1 player in the world, but there were some who doubted how long she could hold on to the spot. There were questions about her lack of power, her serve, her tentative play in big moments, her negative attitude on court. She had led during the third set in both of her previous two major finals before losing. She has said that, for months afterward, her defeat at the French Open, last May, was never far from her mind.

For Wozniacki, too, the stakes were high. Earlier in her career, she spent sixty-seven weeks at No. 1, but she was dogged by the criticism that her ranking was undeserved. People said that she could stockpile ranking points at smaller tournaments but did not have the aggressive game needed to win a major; that her style was too defensive; that she was not adaptable. There were mutterings about magazine covers and photo shoots. She lost the top ranking in 2012, then suffered a string of injuries, and quickly seemed to fade from relevance. Like Halep, she had already played in two major finals and lost both. Like Halep, she was haunted by what might have been: she recently admitted that she still thought about the Australian Open semifinal match she narrowly lost to Li Na, seven years ago. And, like Halep, she had nearly been knocked out of this tournament—in the second round, she had been down two match points at 1–5 to Jana Fett, before winning the next six games. Now, if she won the next two points, she would take Halep’s place at the top—and this time she would not be a Slam-less No. 1.

Halep spun a serve into Wozniacki’s forehand, and got a return cross court. As they traded ground strokes, Halep used the depth of her shots to push Wozniacki off the baseline and take control of the point. A desperate backhand batted by Wozniacki skipped off the top of the net, setting up a sitting ball. Halep charged forward and hit it sharply into the open court. Wozniacki lunged and somehow managed to block back a lob, which Halep—who conspicuously has no overhead shot—swung-volleyed to the other corner of the court. Wozniacki was already on the run. Lunging again, she made the shot. By the time Halep took the reply sharply to the opposite corner, Wozniacki was already sprinting there. She hit an impossibly sharp backhand on the run, which pulled Halep wide, setting up an easy—and astonishing—winner for Wozniacki. The rally had lasted eighteen shots.

Halep calmly turned back to the baseline, ready for match point. Then she did something surprising: she smiled.

Wozniacki won the next point, and so the match, 7–6, 3–6, 6–4.

Over the past six months, Halep has changed her game. Her first serve seems a little bigger, and she backs it more emphatically with her second one. Once regarded merely as a counterpuncher, she has become more aggressive. In her two matches against Kerber and Wozniacki, two of the premier defenders in the game, Halep recorded a jaw-dropping ninety winners. She took risks at big moments instead of always playing the safe shot.

And, it seems, she changed herself. Instead of turning inward and berating herself after loose errors, she remained calm. There was a new attitude about her: an air of clarity, and joy. There were moments during the tournament, she admitted, when “the old Simona,” as she put it, would have given up. You could say that the result was the same as it had been in May: another winnable final, another loss. But the old Simona would not have stood straight after bending. She would not have managed both to smile and to fight.

Wozniacki’s win was a vindication: no one can question her right to the top spot. Every one of her strengths was on display in the final: her defensive prowess, her improved serve, her flawless technique. She showed herself to be grittier than many fans had recognized. She had always been able to block every ball back. In this match, she did it with power, and with purpose.

People can point to the absence of Serena Williams as a reason to discount Wozniacki’s victory. But there shouldn’t be an asterisk. The women’s side of this tournament was remarkable for its high quality across the board. It is as if, with Williams gone, the players answered the challenge implicit in her game: hit harder. Run faster. Serve bigger. Lunge farther. Be brave.