It took four match points and 2 hours, 22 minutes before Barty fended off 2008 champion Sharapova 4-6, 6-1, 6-4, reaching the quarterfinals of a major for the first time.
Surely, everything felt a tad different up-close-and-personal with the 37-year-old American in Rod Laver Arena.
Sharapova's victory Friday was built on aggressive groundstrokes that gave her a 37-10 edge in total winners.
Sharapova won the Australian title in 2008 and has reached the final at Melbourne Park three other times.
Maria Sharapova got out of the Melbourne heat as quickly as she could, needing just 63 minutes to beat British qualifier Harriet Dart 6-0, 6-0 in the first match.
The 2008 Australian Open champion got play started on Rod Laver Arena and needed only 63 minutes to advance.
Sharapova, who lost the first set 7-6 (4), was leading 5-2 in the second before the 17-year-old Wang was forced to quit.
WTA has also decided to guarantee players that they will not have to face a seeded player in a tournament's opening round.
Apart from Halep, only four women have been named Fan Favourite in the ten-year history of the award.
Maria Sharapova won the US Open as a teenager. More than a decade later, she can't seem to make it past the fourth round.
A 15-month doping ban kept Sharapova out of the grass-court Grand Slam tournament in 2016, and an injury sidelined her a year ago.
Halep next faces third-seeded Garbine Muguruza, who thrashed Maria Sharapova 6-2, 6-1 in a matchup of past French Open champions.
Serena Williams has called off her Grand Slam comeback, pulling out of the French Open because of a chest injury before she was supposed to play Maria Sharapova.
The head-to-head history is overwhelmingly in Williams' favour as the American has won 19 of 21 meetings against Sharapova, including 18 in a row.
Sharapova has won two of her five Grand Slam titles at Roland Garros and is now into the fourth round for the 12th time in 14 appearances at the clay-court major.
Sharapova is playing in the clay-court Grand Slam tournament for the first time since 2015, though, and she advanced Wednesday by beating 50th-ranked Donna Vekic of Croatia 7-5, 6-4 to improve to 13-0 in the second round.
Top-ranked Simona Halep, third-seeded Garbine Muguruza and two-time champion Maria Sharapova all powered into the French Open's third round with straight-set victories on Thursday.
Serena Williams resumes her comeback after maternity leave following two consecutive losses in March.
Despite playing three major finals, Simona Halep has yet to overcome a mental barrier which has kept her away from getting her hands on the coveted Grand Slam trophy.
Without a seeding, the 23-time Grand Slam champion risks facing highly ranked players in the early rounds.
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