INDIAN WELLS, Calif. (AP) -- Teen-ager Daniela Hantuchova was so excited to be playing her first tour singles final that she was determined to enjoy every minute of it.

Did she ever.

The gangly 18-year-old from Slovakia overpowered Martina Hingis 6-3, 6-4 Saturday to win the Pacific Life Open.

``It's still hard for me to believe what I've done here,'' Hantuchova said. ``That was the best match I've ever played because on the other side was Martina, one of the best players.''

Hingis, only 21 herself, said, ``She just played very fearless, had nothing to lose. She wasn't afraid of going down the lines.''

She smiled and added, ``When I was 18, I was fearless, too, I guess.''

After booming a backhand winner down the line to end the match, Hantuchova put her hands to her face, perhaps in disbelief, then went over and hugged her mother Marianna, a toxicologist, and her father Igor, a computer scientist. He had just flown in from Slovakia the previous night so he could watch his daughter in her first title match.

``That was always my dream, to have both of them at my first final,'' said Hantuchova, fluent in English and German as well as Slovakian. ``So I'm very happy that my dad came, too, that they both were watching my match.''

Her hard, accurate groundstrokes keeping Hingis scurrying side-to-side throughout the match, Hantuchova broke Hingis' service six times on her way to the $332,000 winner's prize.

With the dominant victory over the second-seeded Hingis, the 18th-seeded Hantuchova became the lowest seed to win a women's tier I event since 1980.

Swirling wind that fanned sand into the air during the men's semifinals earlier in the day had subsided somewhat by the time the women's championship match began in the late afternoon.

Lleyton Hewitt beat Pete Sampras 6-2, 6-4, and Tim Henman defeated Todd Martin 6-3, 6-3 to move into Sunday's championship match.

Hantuchova's backhand was particularly deadly against Hingis, as she hit 20 backhand winners to just five by the Swiss star who has won 40 career titles.

Hantuchova hit 33 winners overall to Hingis' 16.

On one point early in the second set, after racing from side to side to chase down shots, Hingis watched helplessly as Hantuchova rocketed a forehand winner just inside the right sideline.

Hingis raised both arms in apparent frustration.

Hantuchova, a 5-foot-11, 123-pounder who joined the tour in 1999, had extended top-ranked Venus Williams to three sets earlier this year in the third round of the Australian Open.

While the singles final was her first, Hantuchova already has two Grand Slam mixed doubles titles to her credit, the Australian Open this year and Wimbledon in 2001.

In the Hewitt-Sampras semifinal, the 21-year-old Hewitt outplayed his 30-year-old old opponent in every phase of the game and beat him for the fourth consecutive time -- including last year's U.S. Open final.

The Indian Wells victory gave the Australian a 5-4 edge in career meetings against Sampras.

Sampras, left still looking for his first title since Wimbledon two years ago, had beaten Rainer Schuettler in two sets under similarly windy conditions the previous evening, but he was completely off his game against the top-ranked Hewitt.

One gust during their match was so strong it toppled a 25-foot long, heavy signboard sitting on the ground some 20 feet adjacent to the court.

Often pausing to wipe the fine sand from around his eyes, Sampras had one more double fault -- four -- than aces, and made 30 unforced errors to Hewitt's 14. While Hewitt won 14 of his 18 points at the net, Sampras was just 29-of-49 when he went to the net.

``Very difficult conditions for me, playing someone like Lleyton, who is probably the best wind player on the tour,'' Sampras said. ``I've never really liked playing when it's this gusty. It was really swirling around. I really kind of struggled in every area, especially my serve.

``Give him credit; he returned well and served pretty well in the conditions.''