The Estonian dominated the first set, winning 24 points to Sharma's seven, and making two unforced errors to the Australian's 12, according to ERR's sports portal. Both players served up two aces each.

Sharma took a restroom break between sets, which made the pause between sets a little longer than usual; the Estonian started off badly, making two double faults and losing the opening game 40:0. However, she soon returned to form, winning the next four games to take things to 4:1.

Sharma held her serve for the first time in the match in the next game, and earned two break points in the following game. However, Kontaveit pulled these back to win 6:2, with the Australian ending on a double fault to hand the match to her opponent.

The whole match, which had been postponed by one day due to scheduling issues and started soon after 2.00 a.m. Estonian time, took just under an hour.

Kontaveit faces Sandra Sorribes Tormo of Spain, ranked 91st in the world, in the second round on Thursday, with the winner taking on either world number six Belinda Bencic (Switzerland) or Latvian Jelena Ostapenko.

Kontaveit and Tormo have met twice before in competition, with the Estonian winning in straight sets both times, first at last year's Australian Open, and most recently at the U.S. Open last August.

Kaia Kanepi went out in the first round on Monday.

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