World No. 52 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia shared what tactics of Great Britain`s Katie Boulter surprised her during their first-round match at the Rome tournament. Pavlyuchenkova won the encounter with a score of 6/3, 6/3.
Reflecting on Boulter`s play, Pavlyuchenkova noted, “I saw that she was running around her backhand quite a lot on the second serve. She started doing this from the very beginning – running around the second serve in the deuce court. But then I understood her intention and was ready for it. Otherwise, there was nothing fundamentally new.” She also contrasted the conditions, mentioning their last meeting was indoors on hard court in Linz, whereas Rome presented different conditions on outdoor clay.
Pavlyuchenkova also provided an update on her physical state following the injury she sustained before the `thousand` tournament in Madrid.
Addressing concerns about her injury, she explained, “Unfortunately, I`ve just had a series of troubles – viruses, infections, and because my immunity was weakened from taking antibiotics, I pulled my leg before Madrid. It was the hamstring.” Despite the injury, she chose to play in Madrid against her doctor`s advice because she hadn`t played full matches since January and didn`t want to lose her match form. “It`s very easy to lose all your match fitness, so I wanted to keep getting on court somehow, although it wasn`t a very good idea, I still played.”
Regarding her current condition, she stated, “Now my leg feels better here, I`m regaining form, I`ve been training a lot and preparing intensively here, but it`s clear you can`t regain form in a week. If only it were that simple. But I`m fighting, fighting.”
In Madrid, Pavlyuchenkova lost her first-round match to Latvian player Anastasia Sevastova with a score of 4/6, 5/7.
