Tennis: Gutsy Gavrilova fights back to beat Muguruza

Daria Gavrilova toppled reigning Wimbledon champion Garbine Muguruza in one of the biggest wins of her career.

With the clock ticking past 2am, Daria Gavrilova triumphed in the Eternal City

Although conceding height to the majority of her peers, there has never been any doubting the size of the fight in Daria Gavrilova.

The Melburnian demonstrated this admirable trait again when she toppled reigning Wimbledon champion Garbine Muguruza in Rome yesterday in one of the biggest wins of her career.

With the clock ticking past 2am in the Eternal City, the Australian capped a remarkable comeback to topple the former World No 1 in a significant confidence boost ahead of the French Open.

After dropping a tight first set, Gavrilova was forced to fight particularly hard on serve throughout the second, saving all eight break points to force a decider.

Muguruza, the 2016 French Open winner, raced to a 4-0 lead but the Australian refused to concede, managing to win the next five games.

Dressed in a long-sleeved top to combat the brisk conditions as the match passed midnight, Gavrilova saved a match point when trailing 6-5 and another in the tie-breaker to win 5-7 6-2 7-6 (6).

Although conceding power to many of her rivals, Gavrilova boasts superb court-coverage and craft and is supremely fit.

The longer a match progresses, the more it plays into her hands, as proved the case as she wore down the world No 3 to win in 3hrs 8mins.

She scarcely had time to recover from the marathon, let alone celebrate her finest win of 2018. Less than 14 hours after defeating a true clay court star, Gavrilova was due back on court in Rome for a feature match against Maria Sharapova.

It is a timely return to form for the former world junior No 1, who was yet to make her mark on her preferred surface of clay this year. After helping Australia clinch a Fed Cup tie in Wollongong last month, Gavrilova was forced to retire at the start of the third set with a stomach muscle problem when pitted against Sam Stosur in a tournament in Prague.

The world No 24 was then thrashed by Australian Open champion Caroline Wozniacki in the opening round in Madrid.

But something about Rome clearly suits her. She now boasts 10 victories over players ranked inside the top 10 and four of them have come in the Italian Open.

The Italian Open was arguably the Australian’s breakthrough moment on tour when, after returning from a serious knee injury, she reached the semi-finals as a qualifier in 2015.

Sharapova proved too good for her in that semi-final, but much has changed since that time. The five-time champion is showing signs of her best form a year after returning from a doping suspension and shapes as a difficult proposition for Gavrilova, particularly given her lack of recovery time.

The 31-year-old, who eclipsed Australia’s top-ranked woman Ash Barty in three sets in the opening round, defeated Dominika Cibulkova, who was particularly critical of her in the aftermath of the Meldonium scandal.

“I think I’ve always been a player that’s wanted to speak with my actions, and that’s more important than anything else, particularly in my career and my sport,” she said.

Meanwhile, another former world No 1 Karolina Pliskova can expect a hefty fine and possible suspension after a temper tantrum in Rome.

The Czech was clearly wronged by a line call at 5-all in the deciding set in a loss to Maria Sakkari, but responded by faking a handshake with the chair umpire before repeatedly slamming her racquet into the official’s chair.