WTA Number 21: Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in 2010
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova is a professional tennis player from Russia. Pavlyuchenkova is a multiple junior Grand Slam winner, and her highest career ranking is World Number 19 (achieved in 2010). Pavlyuchenkova, current World Number
21, was previously coached by Patrick Mouratoglou. She is currently coached by her brother, Aleksandr Pavlyuchenkov.
The Russian tennis pro began her 2010 campaign with the Brisbane International tournament in Australia. The 19 year old player managed to reach the quarter finals of the event, but was defeated by Ana Ivanovic in straight sets
6-2, 7-6(6). Her second tournament of the year was Sydney, another warm-up event for the upcoming Grand Slam. She only made it to the second round of the qualifying matches before losing to Anastasia Rodionova in consecutive sets, 6-3, 6-3. She then participated
in the 2010 Australian Open, where she fell in the second round once again. This time, her opponent was compatriot Svetlana Kuznetsova, who took her down in another straight sets defeat.
Pavlyuchenkova’s best performance in the year 2010 came at Monterrey. For the first time in her five-year long career, she managed to take down her opposition and maintained enough consistency to win her first Women’s Tennis Association
title in March. Before Monterrey, the Russian pro had been unable to reach even the tour finals of any event. Pavlyuchenkova had entered the event as third seed, and managed to win all her matches easily. She cruised swiftly through the first four round of
the event, and took down the second seed Daniela Hantuchova in the event’s final to win the title.
Overall, Pavlyuchenkova managed to keep a level head and maintained consistency for most of her 2010 campaign. However, she could have finished the season more strongly; she lost the last four matches which she competed in, and
dropped eight out of nine sets. At the year-ending event in Bali, she suffered an utterly lopsided defeat when Ana Ivanovic sent her packing with a bagel and a fry – the final score line was 6-0, 6-1.
Pavlyuchenkova is not yet 20, and with that in mind it should be noted that this was the most successful season of her career so far. She managed to move up 20 spots and made it to the World’s Top 20 players list for the first
time. However, her success is not just on the charts; despite her prowess on the clay courts, she won her first two titles on the hard courts of Monterrey and Istanbul. She showed her best result at the US Open, where she fought her way to the fourth round
before being defeated by French Open champion Francesca Schiavone.
Although she did not win at Cincinnati, Pavlyuchenkova probably played her best tennis at that venue. She took down four Top 20 players in the same week, before former World Number 1 Maria Sharapova stopped her run at the semi
finals.
While Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova had great success on the junior circuit, she has yet to make the cut to become a professional champion. Although she has made great progress in 2010, she does have some trouble with her head-to-head
matches against top players. If she can improve her game enough to challenge these players, she will be able to climb up the rankings ladder easily.
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