By Adrianna Outlaw | Thursday, March 26, 2015

 

Wild card Daria Gavrilova upset Maria Sharapova, 7-6 (4), 6-3; the world No. 2 made her earliest exit in Miami since her 2003 tournament debut.

Photo credit: AP Photo

Maria Sharapova had trouble creating closure in Indian Wells last week. The world No. 2 couldn't survive her opener in Miami tonight.

World No. 97 Daria Gavrilova shocked Sharapova, 7-6 (4), 6-3, score her first career Top 10 victory and sending the five-time Miami Open finalist to her earliest exit at the tournament since her 2003 debut.

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"She runs a lot of balls down," Sharapova said of the Moscow-born Gavrilova, who lives and trains in Melbourne. "You know, I was committing a lot oferrors off of those balls and not really staying patient and just going for, you know, too manymaybe winners, not moving forward enough."

The 5-foot-5 Gavrilova is quick around the court, exuded plenty of positive emotion and wasn't afraid to take her cracks when the opportunity arose.

Stepping on stadium court beneath a bright Miami moon, Gavrilova realized a childhood dream.

"I  didn't really have that much time to think about it. I still can't realize that it's my dream," Gavrilova said. "I have been dreaming about beating Maria since I was probably 12 when I saw her win Wimbledon, when she beat Serena. I was like, 'Oh, I really want to play her and beat her.'  I  was probably visualizing beating her since I was 12, yeah."