Last Eight for a Ninth Time

Australian Open quarterfinalist Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova speaks to Bounces about her comeback, coaching, Stefano Vukov, being Russian in tennis today, and fashion freedom.

MELBOURNE, Australia — Tennis famously has doubles specialists and clay court specialists, but Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova is a rarer breed: a quarterfinal specialist.

Pavlyuchenkova, who with a career-high of No. 11 is almost certainly the best player on either tour to have never broken into the Top 10, has been successful on both ends of the tennis age spectrum: she reached her first major quarterfinal as a teenager, and is now into her ninth at age 33.

“Too old but still here! ooops!” Pavlyuchenkova wrote on the camera lens after her fourth round win.

After that win in the fourth round over Donna Vekic, Pavlyuchenkova was asked in her press conference if she was “surprised to find yourself in the quarterfinals.”; she turned the question around to all the younger players who find themselves absent from the Last 8.

“Question is to the young girls, because I'm still here and I'm in the quarterfinal,” Pavlyuchenkova said. “Maybe better to ask them why I'm still here and I'm still winning.”

Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova’s longevity. (Wikipedia)

On this celebratory occasion, let’s not dwell on her record in those previous eight major quarterfinal matches; instead, let’s appreciate that Pavlyuchenkova is 1-0 when reaching a major semifinal.

And while she has a tough hurdle to clear against two-time defending champion Aryna Sabalenka next, Pavlyuchenkova does have a 2-1 record against Sabalenka, winning their third round match at the 2021 French Open, the site of Pavlyuchenkova’s one major final appearance.

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Pavlyuchenkova’s results can be up and down, but she’s reliably a good chat. Earlier during this Australian Open, Pavlyuchenkova sat down for an interview with Bounces that covered many of the major storylines I’ve been covering at this tournament.

Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova showing off the drawstring pulls she chose for her self-designed bomber jacket. (Photo by Ben Rothenberg)

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While we didn’t discuss what her junior titles here meant to her, we did discuss topics including the complications to her comeback, caused by her Russian passport:

“Obviously, we were banned from Wimbledon [in 2022], so we couldn’t play. Yeah, a little bit you feel like there are restrictions towards us. But I don’t know. I just didn’t feel like it was easy coming back and getting wildcards or whatever; Like in my case, I didn’t really get any. If I got some, it was to qualifying.”
-Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova on challenges faced by Russians on the tennis tour.

We also discussed what she’s looking for in a perfect coach:

“He has to be a mentor. He has to be a good organizer. He needs to be a psychologist, knowing what exactly to say in which moment—this is very difficult and not many can do it because sometimes they get very emotional, also; they would say some stupid shit during the match in the wrong moment, and then you are completely off after that.”
-Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova on what makes a good coach

We then discussed Stefano Vukov, the under-fire coach of her frequent doubles partner Elena Rybakina:

“He’s obviously very active; he has always been. He was always doing a lot of coaching, nonstop, talking from the box, which is obvious. And he was also talking a lot—very talking, talking, talking—in the practices.”
-Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova on Stefano Vukov

Lastly, Pavlyuchenkova was eager to discuss taking her on-court wardrobe into her own hands for the first time:

“I wanted to express myself a bit more on the court, and I wanted to feel sporty and sexy and to do whatever I wanted to do. And nobody would say anything.”
-Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova on designing her own tennis apparel.

All of these topics and more can be found below today’s Bounces paywall, as well as previews of all the quarterfinal matches on the schedule (and one other match on the order of play that leapt off the page for me).

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