WHAT HAPPENED: Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova had to dig very deep in her Round 1 match against No. 30 seed Dayana Yastremska at the 2025 US Open on Monday. Their last meeting came over six years ago (2019), but both players have evolved greatly since then. The 34-year-old veteran was able to navigate the competitive and lengthy affair, winning 6-7(5), 7-6(5), 6-4.
Both women started out solid in their opening service games, but Pavlyuchenkova managed to strike first, breaking the Ukrainian’s serve to go up 2-1.
Despite the early break, Yastremska managed to stay aggressive in her game plan, making service holds a bit more complicated for her opponent. This mindset would pay off in the eighth game, where Yastremska would break ba k to go back on serve at 4-4.
As the match wore on late in the first set, both women raised their level of play. Yastremska worked her way to a set point at 6-5, but Pavlyuchenkova managed to hold serve and force a tiebreak.
The Ukrainian then dialed up her level of play, extracting a few errors from Pavlyuchenkova early. Yastremska eventually earned three more set points, and took the set on her fourth.
In the second set, both Yastremska and Pavlyuchenkova continued to battle at the baseline point-for-point, leaving very little room for error on their respective service games. Towards the end of the second set, both players went on the offensive, making each other’s service games a bit more difficult.
Unforced errors would also become a factor in the latter half of the set, however both players would hold their serves and ultimately force a second set tiebreak. The second set tiebreak played out in similar fashion to the first, but much more competitive this time around. A couple of errors off the Ukrainian’s racquet allowed Pavlyuchenkova to steal the second set late in the tiebreak.
Pavlyuchenkova would continue her offensive momentum and secured the crucial break early in the third set. It would be the only break she needed to stay ahead and stifle any momentum Yastremska would try and build. Pavlyuchenkova would serve out the long match to secure the Round 1 victory.
“Yeah I was ready for a challenge,” Pavlyuchenkova said in a press conference after the match. “I’ve prepared mentally, physically, with everything I had. I’ve also watched [Yastremska] play in Montreal and a couple of other tournaments and I feel like she’s been playing really high quality tennis.”
WHAT IT MEANS: Pavlyuchenkova will play three-time US Open finalist Victoria Azarenka in Round 2. Azarenka currently leads their head-to-head, 7-2, with their most recent match being last year in Toronto, where the three-time US Open finalist won in straight sets. Pavlyuchenkova is looking to best her third round result from last year’s US Open.
“I mean, she’s a Grand Slam champion and such an experienced player,” Pavlyuchenkova said about her upcoming match against Azarenka. “So, I don’t know what to expect, but I know she’s a tough cookie, and so am I."
MATCH POINT: Pavlyuchenkova improves to 2-0 in her head-to-head against Yastremska.
