Stosur eliminations in the first round here are no longer called shock exits, they are called Stosur first round matches. Gavrilova first round matches are likewise no longer called upset wins, they are called Gavrilova first round matches. Business as usual for both.

Last year the perky Gavrilova surprised herself and most everyone when she joyously won the first round. Then she did it next round, and the next and the next. This year victories are no longer a surprise, even when they come against a power-serving, much taller (ok most players are much taller) opponent in Briton Naomi Broady. Gavrilova this year had a seeding of 22 to befit such a change.

Even when she dropped the first set against she held it together and convinced herself that this was all part of her new maturity.

"This is the first step. I was telling myself during the match, Okay, you're doing well. Surely it's going to pay off. After the match, I was joking around. I said, I'm a grown-up woman now," she said. "I was just telling myself, Okay, you're going to be a good girl and it's going to pay off."

So she toiled away. She is used to toiling away, she is used to her matches routinely going more than two hours. It's a product of the tools she has.

"I'm someone who's always going to have tough matches because I can't just blow someone off the court. I don't have a big serve, like, huge forehand or backhand. I think all my matches are going to be tough."

So knowing what her matches would be she toughed it out. She also had a strong understanding of Broady's game for the pair are close friends and even hit up together on earlier in the day ahead of the match. She knew Broady had a big serve and an unusual backhand but she was confident enough in her hunt-it-down game and the disarming touch and feel of her drop shots.

That confidence and self-urging to "be a good girl" was rewarded. She won in a tick under two hours 3-6, 6-4, 7-5.