World No.32 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia on Friday upset No.3 seed Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka 6-4, 2-6, 6-0 to reach the pre-quarterfinals of the French Open for the second time.
Aryna was the highest-ranked seed remaining in the tournament following the withdrawal of Japan’s Naomi Osaka and the retirement of world No.1 Ashleigh Barty. After Aryna’s loss, Americans No.4 seed Sofia Kenin and No.7 Serena Williams are the only top 10 players remaining in the bottom half of the draw.
Anastasia will meet 15th seed Belarusian Victoria Azarenka, who beat Madison Keys of the USA 6-2, 6-2 in the pre-quarterfinals.
No.21 seed Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan and unseeded 23-year-old Slovenian Tamara Zidansek too secured places in the pre-quarterfinals for the first time, albeit in contrasting fashion.
Elena smashed 12 aces and struck 26 winners to crush Russian Elena Vesnina 6-1, 6-4 while Tamara overcomes nerves and a first-set whitewash to defeat Czech Republic’s world No.68 Katerina Siniakova 0-6, 7-6(5), 6-2 in one hour and 57 minutes.
Elena will meet the winner of the third-round match between Serena Williams and Danielle Collins while Tamara will clash with the winner of the match between Romanian Sorana Cirstea and Daria Kasatkina of Russia in the pre-quarterfinals.
Anastasia has reached the second week of seven majors in her career, but this is the first time she has reached that stage in Paris since her quarter-final run as a 19-year-old in 2011. It was the 16th top-five win for the Russian and her fourth on the major stage.
Before her victory against Aryna Sabalenka on Friday, 29-year-old Anastasia had got the better of Russian Vera Zvonareva at the 2011 French Open, American Sloane Stephens at the 2019 Australian Open, and Czech Carolina Pliskova at the 2020 Australian Open.
