Nikki Van Dijk has broken through for her maiden win on the elite world surfing tour as fellow Australian Sally Fitzgibbons extended her championship lead in Portugal.
Van Dijk beat three-time world champion Carissa Moore of Hawaii in the final of the Cascais Women's Pro on Wednesday, improving her ranking from seventh to fifth.
The 22-year-old Van Dijk's third and fourth waves of 6.00 and 4.67 were enough for victory after Moore was only able to make an impact with a 7.83 at her fourth attempt.
Moore needed a score of 2.84 but struggled to find a wave late in the heat.
Her effort scored 2.27 in the final minute but was not enough to prevent Van Dijk, from Victoria's Phillip Island, lifting her first trophy after four years on the pro tour.
"I have jelly legs. Everything is jelly but I'm just so happy," Van Dijk said.
"I was scrambling around at the end because I knew Carissa only needed a small score so I was wanting to better my score too.
"Carissa can get eights and nines in her sleep but it was really hard at the end.
"I like the feeling of this so let's keep it going. I'm just going to enjoy this moment.
"This is literally what I've wanted to do my whole life.
"Now that I've done it I'm so hungry to win even more."
Earlier, Van Dijk claimed a semi-final victory over world No.1 Fitzgibbons, who had a chance to push well ahead in the world title race with second-ranked Courtney Conlogue of the US out in the fourth round.
Fitzgibbons was left to rue a missed opportunity in Portugal with two events of the season remaining.
"I really thought I'd done enough coming in from that heat," Fitzgibbons said of her showdown with Van Dijk.
"It was one of those heats that I thought I surfed really well, so to hear those scores and not come in with the win is a challenge, but something I'll learn from.
"It felt good that my surfing stepped up from the quarter-finals, but it just wasn't to be today."
Fitzgibbons, who is a three-time world championship runner-up, extended her advantage over Conlogue to 3500 points.
Defending world champion Tyler Wright of Australia is third despite an early elimination as she battled a leg injury.
Australian Stephanie Gilmore's bid for a fourth world title appears over after she dropped from fourth to seventh.
The elite world tour heads to France in two days' time before ending in Hawaii in November.
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