Gavrilova, a No.97-ranked wildcard, gave the No.2-seeded Sharapova all kinds of trouble from the beginning, her impressive athleticism and shot variety producing winner after winner and drawing error after error from the Russian megastar - soon enough she led 5-3 in the first set, and after dropping three games in a row from there, she closed out the lengthy 68-minute first set in a tie-break, 7-4.
She stormed out to a 3-0 lead in the second set and never really looked back, allowing Sharapova two games in a row to cut a 4-1 lead down to 4-3 but then promptly closing the match out, 7-6(4), 6-3.
"She runs a lot of balls down," Sharapova said. "I was committing a lot of errors off of those balls and not really staying patient, and maybe going for too many winners but not moving forward enough. "Of course it's a bit of a surprise. It's the first round. I'm expected to win. But that's why we play the matches - you still have to go out and win it, no matter if you're the favorite. Today I didn't.
" Gavrilova showed signs of greatness early on in her career, reaching No.1 in the juniors, but her progress in the seniors was stalled when she tore her ACL at the end of 2013 - she missed the first half of the 2014 season and has been working her way up mainly in ITF Circuit events and WTA qualies.
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