When Shuai Zhang’s last forehand smacked into the net, CiCi Bellis fell to the court and covered her face with her hands.

Sunday’s final point punctuated Bellis’ week-long march toward the inaugural Hawaii Open title and capped a remarkable year-ending run.

In the wider view, her victory at Central Oahu Regional Park is likely just the beginning for the 17-year-old from Northern California.

Bellis, who earlier in the week called Hawaii “one of my favorite places ever,” ended her most memorable stay with a 6-4, 6-2 upset of Zhang, the tournament’s top seed and the 23rd-ranked player in the world, to capture her first Women’s Tennis Association tournament championship.

“It’s crazy,” Bellis said of the rush following match point. “That’s why I play tennis and I think that’s why everyone plays tennis, for moments like that.”

Bellis, the youngest player in the WTA’s top 100, will take a 15-match winning streak into 2017 after winning two International Tennis Federation circuit events in Canada in October and claiming the breakthrough title in the first WTA tournament held in Hawaii.

After a celebratory Big Island vacation, Bellis will head back to Florida to resume training for the start of the new year in Australia. She began the week 92nd in the WTA rankings, but earned a sizable jump after sweeping through this week’s tournament without dropping a set.

“That’s a crazy kind dream end of the year for me and it just gives me more confidence going into 2017,” Bellis said, still clutching the glass trophy.

Zhang, China’s top-ranked player, received a wild card into the tournament and had also rolled to the final without losing a set. She delivered a statement with an ace on the opening serve of the match and ended the first game with another before breaking Bellis’ serve in a quick second game.

Zhang was a point away from going up 3-0 when Bellis extended the game with a blistering return. They went to deuce three more times before a drizzle forced a four-minute rain delay. When they resumed, Bellis won the next two points to earn a momentum-turning break.

“I think that was one of the major turning points for me in the first set, and probably one of the turning points in the match because if I would have lost that I would have been 3-0 and it would have been tough to come back from that,” Bellis said.

“I’ve been working on my returns a lot in practice because I know that since I don’t have the biggest serve in women’s tennis my returns have to be really good and they’ve been awesome for me lately.”

Bellis broke Zhang’s serve for the fourth time to go up 4-1 in the second set and the possibility of claiming her first WTA title seemingly shifted to inevitability.

“I was thinking to myself, ‘I can really do this right here,’ and just tried to stay in the zone and stay focused and didn’t really think about the end result too much. Just tried to stay in the moment,” she said.

Bellis went back to serve for the match at 5-2. Zhang held off one match point with a cross-court return, but Bellis, who announced she would turn pro in September, finished off the match on the next point to claim the title and the $20,000 first prize.

“Amazing match today,” Zhang said in her on-court interview. “CiCi played so well. Amazing tennis.”

The tournament was played under a one-year sponsorship contract with the Hawaii Tourism Authority. As a capacity crowd dispersed on Sunday, tournament director Ben Goldsmith — who endured weather-related challenges throughout the week — said, “We will definitely be back.”

“We all had questions if we should come back, but the one thing that really sold us was our Friday’s night doubles final,” Goldsmith said, referring to a match that started at 10:20 pm. “The crowd stayed packed. … That was the moment I knew we were here for good, not that today didn’t seal the deal.”