Former Russian number one shares comeback plans

Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova has been out of action since May

Russian women’s star Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova has given an update on her comeback plans after being sidelined for several months with a recurring knee injury.

A French Open finalist in 2021, Pavlyuchenkova announced on the even of this year’s tournament at Roland-Garros that her season was ending early because of lingering injury problems.

The 31-year-old has since been receiving treatment and revealed on trip to Moscow last weekend that she is hoping to be up to speed by the Australian Open in January.   

“In an ideal world, I want to start fully training at the end of September,” Pavlyuchenkova told TASS.

Read more

“If they give me the green light, since the doctor is in Germany, in Munich, I’ll need to return one more time.

“If I start in September, then pre-season in October, and start the season at the end of December – in January in Australia… I plan to play at the Australian Open,” added Pavlyuchenkova.

“Unfortunately, it’s such a nasty tendon injury, so I don’t know how much [time] it is. I’m crossing my fingers, everything seems to be positive.”

An Olympic mixed doubles champion alongside Andrey Rublev at the 2020 Tokyo Games, Pavlyuchenkova has seen her WTA singles rating slip to 94 during her time off court.

She has also been replaced as Russian women’s number one by Daria Kasatkina, who is currently ranked 12th in the world.  

Pavlyuchenkova boasts a career-high position of 11th and has 12 WTA career singles titles to her name, with more than $12 million in prize money.

The Samara-born star was also part of the Russian women’s team which claimed the Billie Jean King Cup (formerly the Fed Cup) last year. 

Pavlyuchenkova has used her period of rest and recuperation to visit Dynamo Moscow football club at the weekend, sharing images from the stands and on the pitch on Sunday. 

She watched on as Dynamo routed crosstown rivals Torpedo Moscow 4-0.