Whanagamata surfer Ella Williams has won her maiden World Surf League Qualifying Series event after claiming the Women's Medoc Ocean Lacanau Pro in France overnight.

The 21-year-old's win comes on the back of a ninth placing at the World Surfing Games in Costa Rica less than a week ago and should elevate her seven places to 22nd on the Qualifying Series rankings.

Ella Williams claimed her win and is chaired up the beach by her friends. Photo: WSL.

Williams and French surfer Justine Dupont engaged in a tight back-and-forth battle in the fading swell, mainly scoring medium scores in the first half of the final until Dupont took the first good score of the final, a 6.0 out of a possible ten for the lead.

The Kiwi answered with a very similar ride, on a slightly weaker wave for a 5.43 to stay in the race.

Williams kept surfing the first waves of each set, reaching the line-up first to keep priority and her choice of wave for most of the final. This led Williams to catch the wave of the final, a great right-hander where she completed multiple backhand turns for an excellent 8.17 and the win.

'I'm so happy, all year I haven't had a win so it's a really nice feeling to get back again,” says an ecstatic Williams.

'The higher tide in our last heat sort of stopped delivering waves but we made the most of it. I was lucky to be in a priority position when that right came through, but I tried to time them and be ready, that definitely paid off.

The former 2013 World Junior Champion will now be moving on to Spain and will take it heat-by-heat again but adds: 'it'd be great to get another good result there for sure.”

Williams skips the next event in France heading directly to Spain to focus on the next big QS6000 event which commences on August 30.

She will be joined by New Zealand's top ranked female surfer Paige Hareb who currently sits in 18th place on the Qualifying Series.