Ask any tennis fan their opinion on the "Best WTA player to never..." and more than a fair few might name Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.
Over the past two weeks in Paris, however, the 29-year-old Russian has put together a run that's felt like a long time coming to reach her first major final.
After beating, among others, No. 3 seed Aryna Sabalenka and No. 15 seed Victoria Azarenka to reach her first quarterfinal in Paris in a decade, Pavlyuchenkova, the No. 31 seed, put one of the more infamous streaks in tennis on the line: she had previously been 0-6 in her career in Grand Slam quarterfinals - 0-11 if you include doubles - before she beat No. 21 seed Elena Rybakina in a marathon 6-7(5), 6-2, 9-7 win to break new ground.
She went one better by beating unseeded Tamara Zidansek, the first-ever Grand Slam semifinalist from independent Slovenia who upset former US Open champion and No. 6 seed Bianca Andreescu in the opening round, to advance to the final against Czech Barbora Krejcikova, unseeded and ranked world No. 33.
Here's more on the Russian, once a prodigious junior and now a Grand Slam finalist:
The Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova File
Age: 29
Birthplace: Samara, Russia
Current Rank: No. 22
Career-High Rank: No. 13 (July 2011)
Best US Open Finish: Quarterfinal (2011)
The Baseline
- Playing in her 52nd Grand Slam tournament, Pavlyuchenkova has set an Open era record for most major appearances prior to reaching a final with her effort this fortnight. The 29-year-old broke the record previously held by Flavia Pennetta, who played 49 major tournaments before reaching the US Open final in 2015, which she eventually won. In addition to a run to the quarterfinals in Paris in 2011, where she lost a 6-1, 4-1 lead to eventual finalist and 2010 champion Francesca Schiavone as a teenager, she also reached the last eight in New York in 2011, at Wimbledon in 2016 and in Australia three times.
- Pavlyuchenkova's third-round upset of world No. 4 Sabalenka was the 37th Top 10 win of her career: the highest number of Top 10 wins by a player yet to break into the Top 10 herself. Pavlyuchenkova's first Top 10 win dates back a staggering 12 years to 2009, when, at age 17, she defeated then-world No. 3 Jelena Jankovic in Indian Wells en route to the semifinals.
- Pavlyuchenkova has been consistently ranked inside the Top 50 since November 2008, and will return to the Top 20 for the first time since 2018 by virture of reaching the final. Between the 2008 French Open and the 2020 Australian Open, she also participated in 48 consecutive Grand Slam tournaments, which is tied with former world No. 1 and 2008 French Open champion Ana Ivanovic for the eighth-longest streak of consecutive Grand Slam tournament appearances in history.
- Pavlyuchenkova owns 12 career WTA singles titles, and Saturday's French Open final will be the 21st time she plays for a trophy. She's 3-0 in her career in clay-court finals, with her last victory also coming in France: a 6–7(5), 7–6(3), 7–6(6) win over Dominika Cibulkova at the Internationaux de Strasbourg in 2018. She is the first Russian woman in five years (Maria Sharapova, 2016 Australian Open) to reach a showpiece match at a Grand Slam, and the seventh representing the country to play in a major final all-time.
- Pavlyuchenkova reached three junior Grand Slam finals in 2006, winning the Australian Open and US Open to make her a consensus world No. 1 in the girls' ranks by age 14. She also holds the distinction of being one of the few players in tennis history to successfully defend a junior Grand Slam title, as she also won the Australian Open in 2007. Later that year, days before turning 16, she made her senior Grand Slam main-draw debut at Wimbledon as a wild card. She posted an overall win-loss of record of 131–23 and 87–22 in singles and doubles, respectively, on the junior circuit.
They Said It!
"14-year-old me would tell me, like, 'What took you so long?'. It's been a long road. I had my own long, special road... I just said to myself, 'You know what? This year let's do whatever it takes, anything you can do to improve your game, your mentality' ... I wanted to give it a try so I have no regrets after. That's it." - Pavlyuchenkova on fulfilling the promise she showed over a decade ago at this year's French Open.
