Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova reveals what made her ‘furious’ in Australian Open defeat to Aryna Sabalenka

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Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova suffered another Grand Slam quarter-final defeat after losing in three sets to Aryna Sabalenka.

Pavlyuchenkova struggled in the first set against Sabalenka, but rallied back to find herself up a break in the deciding set.

However, Sabalenka showcased her newfound variety, as she continued her bid for a historic third consecutive Australian Open title.

There had been some criticism in the last round, after Sabalenka was scheduled in the day against Mirra Andreeva, but her match against Pavlyuchenkova was put on the night session in Melbourne.

Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova reveals what made her ‘furious’ against Aryna Sabalenka

The match between Pavlyuchenkova and Sabalenka was heavily affected by the wind, particularly in the latter stages of the third set.

Pavlyuchenkova was asked about this in her press conference, and expressed frustrated at the situation after being broken in a decisive game.

“Did you see this? You could see this wind? I was so furious on the back after the match,” said Pavlycuhenkova. “I said, ‘The ball was jumping away from me. It was not sitting on the racquet.’ They all said they didn’t see that. I’m, like, Okay, great, thanks. Good coaching there, like always. Then I’m happy you saw that (smiling).

“Yeah, that was really tough. Obviously it was for both of us. But she was on the opposite side for the last two games, which is probably, yeah, shame for me because I really didn’t feel much. Like, it just was not sitting on the racquet.

“Every time after serve the ball, I want to hit it, but then it kind of with the wind takes the ball away. Then I could not really hit it. Then, of course, as I said, once you have this little gap or something, concentration is off. Then Aryna took it, and she served it out pretty well.”

Sabalenka will now play for a place in the Australian Open semi-final against good friend Paula Badosa, who beat Coco Gauff in straight sets.

Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova on her Grand Slam quarter-final record

This was Pavlyuchenkova’s ninth Grand Slam quarter-final, with her first dating back to the 2011 edition of Roland Garros when she was just 19-years-old.

Despite reaching the last eight on multiple occasions, Pavlyuchenkova has only ever made it past this stage once, having gone all the way to the 2021 Roland Garros final before being beaten by Barbora Krejcikova.

When reflecting on her run to the quarter-finals at the 2025 Australian Open, Pavlyuchenkova praised herself in what is only her second tournament since the US Open last year.

“Yeah, I don’t know really how to explain this,” said the 33-year-old. “Yeah, obviously because I’ve done four quarter-finals here, I kind of have done quarter-finals at other slams. Okay, like not four times, but still…

“I think sometimes it’s about momentum or, like, I don’t know, just clicked something. But I do feel that this year, this event in particular, I’ve played some really good tennis. Sometimes, you know, I don’t know, you just a bit lucky there and there. You kind of grind some matches. But here I felt like I was playing really good tennis.

“Even today, parts of the match I felt like, yeah, I was hitting the ball well, and I could compete with world No. 1. So that was my feeling.”