Publications
Partners
Melbourne - Double Wimbledon winner Petra Kvitova was sent crashing out of the Australian Open Wednesday by local hope Daria Gavrilova, becoming the third top-10 women's player who has flopped in Melbourne.
The out-of-sorts Czech sixth seed had no answers to the confident Gavrilova, who raced into a Grand Slam third round for the first time, winning 6-4, 6-4 on Margaret Court Arena.
Kvitova joined second seed Simona Halep and eighth seed Venus Williams on an early plane home after they were beaten in the first round. Former world number one Caroline Wozniacki was also an early casualty.
"It was unreal. I was so nervous at the end. I'm just really proud," said the Russian-born Australian, who only switched nationality in December. "I'm just really happy."
The 89-minute win ranks as one of Gavrilova's best, perhaps behind only a defeat of then-world world number two Maria Sharapova in Miami last year.
The giant-killing world number 39 now plays France's Kristina Mladenovic on Friday for a place in the fourth round.
Czech Kvitova, a semi-finalist at Melbourne Park in 2012, had the worst possible build-up with a gastro problem forcing her out of the Shenzhen Open and Sydney International, where she was defending champion.
While the aggressive baseliner recovered to comfortably survive the first round, it all went wrong against Gavrilova, who partnered Nick Kyrgios to win the mixed-team Hopman Cup in Perth this month.
The Aussie, who beat three top-10 players in 2015, won four of the last five games to take the first set 6-4 against the stunned Kvitova.
Kvitova worked hard to recover in the second set but quickly fell 2-5 behind, saving one match point before breaking Gavrilova to claw back to 4-5.
But it was too little too late with the Australian leaping for joy after the Czech sent a forehand long to hand her victory.
Results from the Australian Open Grand Slam at Melbourne Park on Wednesday:
Men
Second round
Novak Djokovic (SRB x1) bt Quentin Halys (FRA) 6-1, 6-2, 7-6 (7/3)
Andreas Seppi (ITA x28) bt Denis Kudla (USA) 7-5, 6-4, 6-4
Federico Del Bonis (ARG) bt Renzo Olivo (ARG) 7-6 (7/5), 3-6, 6-7 (3/7), 7-5, 6-2
Gilles Simon (FRA x14) bt Evgeny Donskoy (RUS) 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (7/1), 4-6, 7-5
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (FRA x9) bt Omar Jasika (AUS) 7-5, 6-1, 6-4
Pierre-Hugues Herbert (FRA) bt Noah Rubin (USA) 6-3, 6-4, 6-0
Guillermo Garcia-Lopez (ESP x26) bt Daniel Brands (GER) 4-6, 6-1, 7-6 (7/0), 6-3
Kei Nishikori (JPN x7) bt Austin Krajicek (USA) 6-3, 7-6 (7/5), 6-3
Roger Federer (SUI x3) bt Alexandr Dolgopolov (UKR) 6-3, 7-5, 6-1
Grigor Dimitrov (BUL x27) bt Marco Trungelliti (ARG) 6-3, 4-6, 6-2, 7-5
Dominic Thiem (AUT x19) bt Nicolas Almagro (ESP) 6-3, 6-1, 6-3
David Goffin (BEL x15) bt Damir Dzumhur (BIH) 6-4, 0-6, 6-4, 6-2
Marin Cilic (CRO x12) bt Albert Ramos (ESP) 6-4, 6-3, 7-6 (7/4)
Roberto Bautista (ESP x24) bt Dusan Lajovic (SRB) 4-6, 6-2, 4-6, 6-2, 6-1
Nick Kyrgios (AUS x29) bt Pablo Cuevas (URU) 6-4, 7-5, 7-6 (7/2)
Tomas Berdych (CZE x6) bt Mirza Basic (BIH) 6-4, 6-0, 6-3
Women
Second round
Serena Williams (USA x1) bt Hsieh Su-Wei (TPE) 6-1, 6-2
Darya Kasatkina (RUS) bt Ana Konjuh (CRO) 6-4, 6-3
Margarita Gasparyan (RUS) bt Kurumi Nara (JPN) 6-4, 6-4
Yulia Putintseva (KAZ) bt Xinyun Han (CHN) 6-3, 6-1
Belinda Bencic (SUI x12) bt Timea Babos (HUN) 6-3, 6-3
Kateryna Bondarenko (UKR) bt Svetlana Kuznetsova (RUS x23) 6-1, 7-5
Lauren Davis (USA) bt Magdalena Rybarikova (SVK) 7-6 (9/7) abandon
Maria Sharapova (RUS x5) bt Aliaksandra Sasnovich (BLR) 6-2, 6-1
Agnieszka Radwanska (POL x4) bt Eugenie Bouchard (CAN) 6-4, 6-2
Monica Puig (PUR) bt Kristyna Pliskova (CZE) 4-6, 7-6 (8/6), 9-7
Anna-Lena Friedsam (GER) bt Wang Qiang (CHN) 6-3, 6-4
Roberta Vinci (ITA x13) bt Irina Falconi (USA) 6-2, 6-3
Carla Suarez (ESP x10) bt Maria Sakkari (GRE) 6-7 (5/7), 6-2, 6-2
Elizaveta Kulichkova (RUS) bt Monica Niculescu (ROM) 6-4, 2-6, 6-4
Kristina Mladenovic (FRA x28) bt Nicole Gibbs (USA) 6-1, 7-6 (7/4)
Daria Gavrilova (AUS) bt Petra Kvitova (CZE x6) 6-4, 6-4
