The horn sounded on a grey, rain-soaked morning in Saquarema, and Sawyer Lindblad had her first Championship Tour title. On 26 June 2026, the 20-year-old from San Clemente won the WSL VIVO Rio Pro, defeating 15-year-old Tya Zebrowski of France 7.67 to 6.10 in the final. After years at the door, she walked through it.
The final in Saquarema
The conditions offered little. The final against Tya Zebrowski, the youngest CT qualifier in history, was a grind, and tough conditions kept scoring opportunities scarce early. Lindblad settled first. She found a 7.57 heat total and held her lead as both surfers hunted the lineup. The decisive moment belonged as much to fortune as to nerve. A major scoring wave slipped through Zebrowski's hands when she fell on her best opportunity. Lindblad kept working the lefts. Her forehand kept ticking her score up to a 7.67, and when the horn sounded, the result was sealed.
The path to the final had been the harder test. Along the way she eliminated Luana Silva in the Quarters and 2023 World Champion Caroline Marks in the Semis before meeting Zebrowski in the Final. Two established names, then a rising one, all in a single day.
"I feel amazing. I'm really emotional right now. I feel like I've gotten so many seconds. I'm just really happy it was my day."
The words came after the heat, plainly spoken. The seconds she mentioned had been many.
The years before the win
This was not a sudden arrival. Four CT Finals and three runner-up finishes had defined her recent seasons: runner-up in Saquarema in 2024, runner-up at Margaret River that same year, and second again in New Zealand more recently. Each result carried her closer without carrying her over. The pattern held long enough to feel like a verdict.
Brazil, though, has always answered her. The country has been a marker for Lindblad's career at every turn. She qualified for the Tour here. She made her first Final here. The first win completed the sequence in the same water. She leaves Rio at No. 4 in the world.
The result reshapes her season. What had been a run of near-misses now reads as a foundation, a breakthrough that turns promise into standing among the tour's front rank. The margin over Zebrowski was modest. The meaning was not.
She told reporters that Brazil would stay with her. On this coast she has grown from qualifier to champion, and the story now has its first line settled.
