AO 2020, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova Power Propels

January 25, 2020,

As the top seeds continue to fall at this year’s 2020 Australian Open, another top seed exited in a forceful stunner.

Up to this point, all ten of the top seeds made it through to the third round, then Serena Williams, Naomi Osaka, Madison Keys, Karolina Pliskova and Belinda Bencic all fell in the span of just 24 hours.

In regards to Karolina, as reported by the WTA, “Two-time Australian Open quarterfinalist Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova scored her first win over former World No.1 Karolina Pliskova, managing two tense tie-breaks to advance into the second week for the third time in four years.”

Anastasia, affectionately known as the “Ace Queen” proved that power won the day, blasting a whopping 51 winners while only hitting 43 unforced errors, an impressive ratio for a player going all out in a ground war.

Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova is a star Russian tennis player.

The former World number thirteen ranked player saved two set points late in the second set and saved her best tennis for the pair of Sudden Deaths to advance after two hours and 25 minutes on Rod Laver Arena.

If you are new to enjoying Anastasia’s game, she truly is impressive and perhaps you should learn more about her.

Anastasia started playing tennis at age six. Later as a junior prodigy she won two junior Grand Slam titles, and became the junior World No. 1 in January 2006 at the very young age of 14.

Anastasia continued her success after turning professional, reaching a career-high singles ranking of world No. 13 on 4 July 2011, and as of 4 November 2019, is ranked world No. 30.

A model of high level consistency, Anastasia has also been continuously ranked inside the top 50 since November 3, 2008, when she entered the top-50 rankings for the first time in her career.

This has paid huge dividends in the win column.

She has won twelve singles and five doubles titles on the WTA Tour, as well as five singles and eight doubles titles on the ITF Women’s Circuit.

Her greatest singles titles to date have come at two Premier-level tournaments, the 2014 Open GDF Suez and the 2014 Kremlin Cup. She is a five-time Grand Slam quarterfinalist, having reached that stage at all four Grand Slams (at the 2011 French Open, the 2011 US Open, the 2016 Wimbledon Championships, and the 2017 and 2019 Australian Opens).

Anastasia was born in Samara, RSFSR, Soviet Union, to athletic parents, her father being a rower and her mother excelled as a swimmer.

High athletic achievements run in the family. Her brother Alexander also played professional tennis for a time. Her grandmother played professional basketball, and her grandfather was an elite umpire in that sport for USSR.

With a steady hand, Anastasia first made headlines in 2006 by winning the Australian Open junior title, defeating Caroline Wozniacki in the final.

The major breakthroughs began in 2011.

Our rising star opened her 2011 season in Brisbane where she was seeded fifth. Despite being pushed to three sets in two prior matches, she managed to reach the semifinals where she fell to eventual champion Petra Kvitová.

Incredibly impressive.

She made her top 20 debut following her great result there.

As she has continued to ascend, her success has gained the attention where it really counts.

With sponsors.

As of 2019, her clothing sponsor is Lacoste, and her racquet sponsor is Wilson. She currently endorses the Wilson Burn range of racquets.

In America, fans are probably more familiar with the longtime United States sport company Wilson.

The Wilson Sporting Goods Company is an American sports equipment manufacturer based in Chicago, Illinois.

Most famously known for their tennis racquets, Wilson also makes equipment for many sports, including American football, badminton, baseball, basketball, fast pitch softball, golf, racquetball, soccer, squash, and volleyball.

Her other sponsor Lacoste is a French company, founded in 1933 by tennis player René Lacoste and André Gillier.

The group sells clothing, footwear, sportswear, eyewear, leather goods, perfume, towels and watches. The company can be recognized by its green crocodile logo.

René Lacoste, the company’s founder, was nicknamed “the Crocodile” by fans because of his tenacity on the tennis court.

Anastasia appears to be following in his footsteps.

In terms of her playing style Anastasia employs an all-court game, using aggressive groundstrokes and shots to dominate play.

This she used to perfection in pounding Karolína Plíšková into submission.

She possesses powerful groundstrokes off both wings and both are played relatively flat, with her forehand played with slight topspin. Both her forehand and backhand are much more powerfully hit when she hits it into the open court or when she hits a ball that has landed short.

Anastasia also attacks the serve aggressively by hitting it into the open court powerfully, and this is especially evident when returning a second serve. She also possesses a good serve that combines power, with accurate placement to either get a head-start into the point or to win the point from the serve, with her being capable of serving several aces in a match.

What we saw on display against Karolina Plíšková in terms of her tenacity was amazing and given her top level opponent who rarely flinches, nothing short of stunning.

Karolina is a former world No. 1 and is currently ranked No. 2 in the world by the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA).

Ms. Plíšková has won sixteen singles and five doubles titles on the WTA tour, as well as 10 singles and six doubles titles on the ITF circuit in her career. She reached her first Grand Slam final at the 2016 US Open, where she was runner-up to Angelique Kerber in three sets.

For those of us who have watched Karolina play over the years, she engages at such a high level, she never seems to be out of a match.

Her against Anastasia, surprisingly, though the score was extremely close, she never really seemed to be a true threat to win.

As reported by USA Today, “Pliskova, a semifinalist here last year, lost 7-6 (7-4), 7-6 (7-3) to 30th-seeded Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in match lasting almost 2½ hours on Saturday. It was an ominous start, with Pliskova needing almost 18 minutes and fending off six break-point chances before holding in her first service game.”

Yes, Anastasia kept Karolina in trouble and out of sorts right from the start.

Anastasia had never beaten the former World No.1 in six previous meetings.

Seven times is apparently a charm.

Now Anastasia gets to move on.

Powerfully so.