Heather Watson finally ended her four-year title drought by sealing her fourth WTA Tour title at the weekend, with the Brit attributing her fine form to a happy life both on and off the court.
The British No 2 triumphed 6-4 6-7 (8-10) 6-1 over Canadian teenager Leylah Fernandez to seal her fourth WTA Tour title.
Watson leapt 20 places in the rankings to 49, her highest mark since the summer of 2015, when she came agonisingly close to beating Serena Williams at Wimbledon and seemed destined for many big days ahead.
A third title in Monterrey in March 2016 aside, the highs have been few and far between, especially over the last three years.
The 27-year-old from Guernsey has spent several lengthy periods outside the top 100, but she recaptured some of her best form in October when he reached the final of the Tianjin Open in China. Since then, she has not looked back.
Speaking to Sky Sports' Raz Mirza at the Champions Tennis tournament at the Royal Albert Hall in December, Watson said: "I have suffered ups and downs, but that's sport. The last couple of years haven't been great for me but the last six months have been really good and I've started to find myself again, playing some really good tennis.
"I'm happy with where I'm at now and feeling very optimistic for next year."
Watson began 2020 by making the semi-finals of the Hobart International, while she beat Coco Vandeweghe, Kateryna Bondarenko, Christina McHale and Wang Xinyu to reach Sunday's final, where she secured the title on her 10th match point.
The Brit attributes her improved form down to Courtney Duffus, a Yeovil Town striker she met on a night out at Wimbledon last year.
She spoke to a number of newspapers over the phone on Sunday, including The Telegraph's Simon Briggs and The Guardian's Kevin Mitchell in which she discussed Duffus' influence.
"Courtney has been super into it," Watson said. "He is a super-good influence, the person who has brought the calm into my life and my mind. He stayed up with his best mate last night to watch it. Courtney is so calm and level-headed that it sort of rubs off on to me. I am a calm person, but I have also got that fire and feistiness. He just puts me at ease with anything and everything, he just makes my life really easy."
This time last year Watson was in the middle of an eight-match losing run that lasted four months.
"I'd call it a roller coaster," she said. "I've had a lot of ups and downs in the last four years. The last six to eight months have been amazing for me, I've really started doing well again, been happy, loving life. But before that it was a tough time. I'm glad I'm out of that.
"I'm a really happy, bubbly person and it takes a lot for anything to get me down. It wasn't just one thing, it was just constantly being in a bad place."
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Watson, like many tennis players, admits she struggled not to connect her feelings of self-worth to her results, and unhappiness in her personal life compounded things.
"Tennis, it's your whole life, you think about it every single day, you're playing it pretty much every single day, or if you're not playing it you're doing stuff for it," she said.
"You are what you do so, when you're not doing well in tennis, you feel like a failure because that's all you're doing every day.
"At one point I was wondering if I was even going to win a match. I had zero belief. But that was because I didn't have much confidence in myself off court either.
"Now I'm very confident in myself as a person, very happy, getting that balance right between working hard, making those sacrifices but also enjoying my life."
Watson is keen to stress she expects more of herself, with bettering the career-high ranking of 38 she set in January 2015 top of the list.
"That's why I'm still playing," she said. "I wouldn't keep playing just to be average. I want to get the most out of myself and my career.
"This won't be forever, it won't be for much, much longer, so I want to make the most of it, bring more titles and definitely get a new career-high. I feel like 38 is not good enough for me."
Watson's celebrations after lifting the trophy in Acapulco involved beach and pool time with mum Michelle before moving on to Monterrey where she will target another deep run.
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