It wasn’t just a battle between the shriekers.

It was the Australian Open final between two prodigiously good tennis players and a battle for the world’s No.1 ranking.

It was also an internal battle for a woman against her own fragile disposition, which she described as her “boiling” mind, and her meltdowns under pressure.

Victoria Azarenka won that contest in emphatic fashion, with a 6-3 6-0 win over three-time grand slam champion Maria Sharapova.

That fragility under pressure looked evident when Azarenka was broken in the first game, but from then she took complete control – of herself and the match.

She was calm, poised and in possession of a brutal, but varied, game and duly won her first grand slam title and claimed the mantle as the world’s best along with it.

The Belarusian won the shrieking contest as well.

While Sharapova was louder, Azarenka’s squeals lingered longer.

The only shame about the enthralling baseline rallies in the first set was each shot was accompanied by grunts and shrieks, increasing in volume as the intensity rose.

After her past few stressful days, the level of shouting must have had Prime Minister Julia Gillard glancing around nervously for her trusty security.

But if the beleaguered prime minister needed a nerve settler, she was well positioned with a blue esky at her feet in the front row of Rod Laver Arena’s version of the royal box.

One spectator came protected against the noise with a pair of runway earmuffs, appropriate given that Sharapova’s shrieks have been measured at the same decibel level of low flying aircraft.

Another man had enough after one game and yelled “turn the volume down” while much of the crowd tittered and giggled early on.

But at the end, they were applauding the coming of age of 22-year-old Azarenka who handled her first grand slam final with composure and put the exclamation mark on the new era of women’s tennis.

She dropped to her knees on the baseline and held her head in her hands when she won, joining Li Na, Petra Kvitova and Sam Stosur as debutante grand slam winners.

For the first time in the Open era, four different women hold the grand slam trophies, all for the first time.

But it’s unlikely it will be Azarenka’s last.