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Up until a few years ago, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova was in a habit of staging deep runs at the Australian Open quite often. Between 2017 and 2020, she reached the quarterfinals at the season's opening Slam on three occasions.
Pavlyuchenkova, a hugely successful junior, transitioned to the senior circuit way back in 2005. However, it took her 16 years to make her first Grand Slam final which came at the 2021 French Open.
The big-hitting Russian has been a force to reckon with on the Tour elsewhere though and is regarded as one of the best players ever to have not been ranked inside the top 10.
And there's good arithmetic backing that claim. At 38, Pavlyuchenkova has the most number of top-10 wins by a player who has never been a part of that elite bracket.
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The 2021 French Open final was seen as a sign of bigger things but a series of injuries followed, derailing her progress over the last few years. She did, however, show signs of revival in 2024.
After a gap of nearly two years, Pavlyuchekova was back to adding top-10 scalps to her tally. She beat the likes of Marketa Vondrousova and Zheng Qinwen and clawed her way back into the top 30 of the world rankings.
Australian Open, a happy hunting ground for Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova
Australia has been a happy hunting ground for Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova ever since her junior years. It was at Melbourne Park that she had her big breakthrough, winning her maiden Grand Slam girls' singles title in 2006.
The Russian had beaten Caroline Wozniacki in the summit clash. And while the Dane and many of the duo's contemporaries went on to replicate that success on the senior circuit, the belief was missing for Pavlyuchenkova.
The 2021 French Open was special for the Russian. After losing the final to Barbora Krejcikova, Pavlyuchekova discussed at length her struggles with self-belief and the work that she had put in to overcome it.
The 33-year-old can still strike the forehand and backhand as fiercely as any of the Tour's biggest strikers but it's her newfound, if somewhat delayed, maturity that inspires confidence in her ability to post a big result.
The 2022 and 2023 seasons were mostly wasted in recovery but 2024 marked a sort of resurgence for Pavlyuchenkova. She has been hitting the practice courts hard these last few weeks and will be looking for a good start to the new season.
Several, seven to be specific, of Pavlyuchenkova's 38 top-10 wins have come on Australian soil. And if she can get back to swinging the racket freely, she could pose a few problems for everyone else in the draw.
