'Disappointed' Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova to skip grass court season, as Wimbledon doesn't issue wildcard to the Russian
Russian tennis player Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova recently said that she will skip the grass court season as she hasn't received a wildcard to participate in the 2023 Wimbledon Championships.
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova made her comeback at the start of 2023, after missing nine months because of injury.
The 31-year-old has been in great form recently, reaching the quarterfinals of the 2023 French Open, where she lost to the eventual finalist Karolina Muchova 5-7, 2-6.
However, Pavlyuchenkova recently stated via social media that she will skip the grass season this year as she hasn't received wildcards for the events she was hoping to compete in.
"Hi all, I want to announce that I will skip grass season this year. Unfortunately, after nine months of absence last year, I'm not able to enter some tournaments through my ranking and I didn't receive wildcards to play the grass events I was hoping for," Pavlyuchenkova wrote.
The former Wimbledon quarterfinalist explained that she used her Grand Slam protected rankings at the first two Majors of the year.
"Additionally, I already used my two Grand Slam protected rankings at the Australian Open and Roland Garros, meaning that I cannot take part in Wimbledon," she added.
Pavlyuchenkova added that she will focus on playing claycourt tournaments in July and will try to qualify for the US Open main draw.
"It comes with a big disappointment but I will focus on smaller tournaments in July on clay, prepare the rest of the season and hopefully climb my way up into the US Open main draw. See you soon and thank you so much for your support," Pavlyuchenkova concluded.
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova: My fighting spirit comes from being in Russia as a little girl
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova talked about her journey during the 2023 French Open, where she managed to reach the quarterfinals.
After defeating Elise Mertens 3-6, 7-6(3), 6-3, in the fourth round, the Russian was asked where she gets her competitive spirit from, and how much of it came from coffee.
"Well, I think without coffee I wouldn't wake up today. I would be still sleeping on the court," Pavlyuchenkova joked.
"I think my fighting spirit and competitive spirit comes from being back in Russia as a little girl. I didn't have much of support and sponsorships, there was nothing, so I was just growing up playing on some bad courts and my dad was coaching me," she added.
Pavlyuchenkova explained that the rough training conditions hardened her will to win and compete.
"So since then, I felt like every match I was playing or practice or whatever, I just felt like I want to win, and I have to win to kind of keep surviving and keep going and continue playing tennis that I love," Pavlyuchenkova said.
"So I think it comes more from that, since being a child, I think I have just, yeah, grown up with this," she concluded.