(Provided by Tennis World USA)
Russian tennis star Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova has announced that she is skipping Wimbledon and the entire grass season. Pavlyuchenkova, a former world No 11, is now ranked at 115 in the world and she didn’t make the main draw cut for Wimbledon.
Pavlyuchenkova, who appeared in just three tournaments last year, used her protected ranking to enter this year’s Australian Open and French Open. Since a player is only allowed to use a protected ranking for two Grand Slams, Pavlyuchenkova needed a Wimbledon wildcard.
But since she didn’t get a wildcard for Wimbledon or any other British grass-court tournament, she decided to skip the grass season and focus on preparing for some clay tournaments in July.
Pavlyuchenkova to skip Wimbledon, the entire grass season
“Hi all, I want to announce that I will skip the grass season this year.
Unfortunately, after 9 months of absence last year, I’m not able to enter some tournaments through my ranking and I didn’t receive Wild Cards to play the grass events I was hoping for. Additionally, I already used my two Grand Slam Protected Rankings at the Australian Open and in Roland Garros, meaning that I cannot take part in Wimbledon.
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 said in a message posted.
At this past French Open, Pavlyuchenkova made the quarterfinal before losing to Karolina Muchova. When asked if she expected Wimbledon to give her a wildcard, Pavlyuchenkova couldn’t help herself but laugh. “Are you serious? Do you think after the situation last year they would give me a wild card this year?” Pavlyuchenkova said in Paris.
Pavlyuchenkova’s best Wimbledon result came in 2016, when she made the quarterfinal before losing to Serena Williams.
