STUTTGART, Germany - No.6 seed Caroline Garcia battled from behind to defeat three-time champion Maria Sharapova at one of the latter's most successful WTA stops on Tuesday, rallying from a set down to secure a 3-6, 7-6(6), 6-4 first-round victory. 

The 24-year-old scored her first career victory against Sharapova in five career meetings, dating back to an inconic match at Roland Garros when Garcia was a 17-year-old in 2011.

As a wildcard in the second round, the then-teenaged Garcia led the No.7 seed 6-3, 4-1, but lost the last 11 games. 

"I think it was a very close match, as it was always expected I know she's a fighter and until the end, it would be very difficult," Garcia said on-court after the match.

"I was more aggressive today and I returned a little bit better [than in their past matches]. Finally, I can say that after seven years, I beat her."

On a three-match losing skid and having not taken the court due to injury since a first-round defeat to eventual champion Naomi Osaka in Indian Wells last month, Sharapova was looking to win her first match since January's Australian Open and started strongly against a Top 10 foe. 

The five-time Grand Slam champion won the opening set behind the only service break for either player, pushed to win the match in straight sets as she came from a break down in the second set and saved three set points in a tense tiebreak.

Nonetheless, Garcia won the middle set on her fourth opportunity in the tiebreak, and held her nerve in the decider. The French No.1 recovered from an early break down to not only level the match, but score a thrilling victory in a tense final service game in two hours and 45 minutes.

"She's really playing every single point at 100 percent...it's definitely a very important win today," Garcia added. "Sometimes, you have to think a little bit more and play with more accuracy, and that's what I did in the last few games."

Garcia withstood 17 aces from Sharapova's racquet over the course of the match, which in part contributed to the Russian having the edge in overall winners, 39-25. 

After serving two double faults in the lone game in which she lost serve in the opening set, Garcia's delivery tightened up over the course of the match. The World No.7 hit six aces of her own in the last two sets combined, and won over 70 percent of the points played behind her first serve in each set.

"Overall, I didn’t return as well as I should against a server like her. I didn’t make her think. I didn’t get enough balls back. I think she got a lot of free points which gave her a little bit more confidence on both wings getting into the rallies," Sharapova said after the match.

"It's fast tennis against her. That's the way she plays. That’s the way we both like to play. It’s aggressive tennis. You know and even after going down that second set,then coming back and finding that break and not holding on to that, that’s something to look at. That's something where I need to be a little bit smarter, being in that winning position."

"The last match we played was a long time ago, so I was not really thinking about it," Garcia added to reporters after the match. "It was very different for her and different for me. I was just trying to be in the present and see what I could do now and not really think about the past.

"I think mentally it was a very important match for me. I kept positive and kept fighting even if it was difficult when I was down, and that is very important for me, especially after the last couple of matches I played."

Garcia's next foe will be much less familiar to her, as the Frenchwoman will face rising 15-year-old Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk.