Sharapova Stunned by Russian Wild Card in Miami

World number two Maria Sharapova was shown an early exit at the Miami Open on Thursday, defeated by fellow Russian Daria Gavrilova, who edged out a first set tie-break on her way to a 7-6(4), 6-3 victory.

Ranked 97th in the world, Gavrilova entered her second-round bout with Sharapova having never beaten a player ranked higher than 35, but put on a fantastic display of tennis to beat the player she has been watching since she was a kid.

“I still can’t realize that it’s my dream—I have been dreaming about beating Maria since I was probably 12, when I saw her win Wimbledon, when she beat Serena,” said Gavrilova. “I was like ‘Oh, I really want to play her and beat her.’ I’ve probably been visualizing beating her since I was 12.”

After jumping out to a 5-3 lead in the opening set, Gavrilova saw Sharapova win the next three games to take a 6-5 lead. But after evening things up at six, she turned it on in the breaker to capture the 68-minute opening set.

She carried that momentum and confidence into the second set and quickly took a 3-0 advantage. Sharapova would never get closer than down 3-4 in the frame as Gavrilova, who is still working her way back from a torn ACL in 2013, notched the biggest win of her career.

“She runs a lot of balls down,” said Sharapova of her compatriot. “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 will move on and play Japan’s Kurumi Nara, who ousted 25th-seeded Caroline Garcia of France 6-3, 7-6(9).

While Sharapova saw her Miami Open run come to an end on Thursday, a number of other tournament favorites had no problem moving on.

Fourth-seeded Caroline Wozniacki trounced American Madison Brengle 6-0, 6-1, breaking her opponent five times in nine tries to ease into the third-round. The Dane will take on Kaia Kanepi next after the Estonian beat 28th seeded American Varvara Lepchenko 6-2, 6-4.

Venus Williams notched six break points and won 60 percent of her return points to coast past Urszula Radwanska 6-3, 6-2.

“She’s definitely a tricky player,” said Williams of Radwanska. “She puts so many balls in play. And it was a little windy today—I just had to keep my feet moving and pray my balls were going in.

But I love this crowd. I could really feel them behind me. It felt really good out there.”

Venus, a three-time champion at this tournament, will meet Samantha Stosur in the third-round. The 23rd seeded Australian played an up and down match on Thursday in a 6-1, 3-6, 6-0 defeat of Pauline Parmentier.

Radwanska’s older sister, Agnieszka, advanced into the third-round Thursday, defeating Slovak Anna Schmiedlova 6-4, 7-5.

Other winners from Thursday included 12th seed Carla Suarez-Navarro, 14th seed Karolina Pliskova and Andrea Petkovic. Petkovic took out American Christina McHale by a score of 6-2, 6-2.