​Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova reached the quarterfinals of Roland Garros-2023, the athlete from Russia managed to make a spectacular comeback in the match against Elise Mertens (28th seed).

Anastasia PavlyuchenkovaPhoto: MANAN VATSYAYANA / AFP / Profimedia

Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, the first athlete outside the Top-250 WTA to reach the quarterfinals at Roland Garros

The player from Belgium started the round of 16 match much better and led with a score of 6-3, 3-1.

Pavlyuchenkova, currently ranked 333rd in the world (coming back from a serious knee injury), recovered from a break in the second set to win in a tiebreak. Then in the decisive match it was much easier for the Russian.

After three hours and nine minutes of play, Anastasia won 3-6, 7-6(3), 6-3 to become the first player outside the WTA top 250 to reach the quarters at Roland Garros (in the open era ).

Know:

  • Pavlyuchenkova, a 2021 finalist on clay in Paris, will meet the winner of the match between Karolina Mukhova (43 WTA) and Elina Avanesyan (134 WTA) in the next round.
  • Thanks to her performance at Roland Garros, Anastasia ranks 111 in the WTA Live ranking. If she wins in the quarters, the Russian will rise to 58th place.
  • Only five other players have reached the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam in the Open Era but are ranked lower than Pavlyuchenkova: Martina Hingis (No. 349 – 2006 Australian Open), Kaia Kanepi (No. 451 – 2017 US Open), Kim Clijsters (Not ranked – US Open 2009), Justine Henin (unranked – Australian Open 2010) and Tsvetana Pironkova (unranked – US Open 2020).

The Roland Garros tournament takes place from May 28 to June 11, has a total prize pool of 49.6 million euros, and is the 127th tournament. Iga Sviatek and Rafael Nadal (14-time winner in Paris) became the champions of the title.