Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova makes her long-awaited return to the courts in Linz as she arrives as one of two former champions playing the event this year. It is an event that the Russian has always seemed to flourish at. She won the title back in 2015 and backed that run up with another positive showing at the 2016 edition of the event, making the quarterfinals.
What we have seen is a reaction from the Russian since her early exit in the opening round of the US Open to talented Swede Rebecca Peterson. Her quarter-final performance in Wuhan is something that would have given Pavlyuchenkova the confidence she needs as she bids to make her way back up the rankings and into the Top-20 bracket of the WTA rankings.
Her first round opponent in Linz will be Viktoria Kuzmova. A very dangerous and talented striker of the ball that has the ability to create easy pace off both wings, which makes her hard to play against, because she presents problems from both sides. The Slovakian really made her breakthrough at tour-level at this very event last year.
The Slovakian had only played a handful of tournaments at this level going into Linz last year, but had one of those weeks where she was finding the court with regularity despite going for her shots and playing aggressively. She made her mark through qualifying and won a WTA first round match for the first time before falling to Tatjana Maria, the experienced German. There is a feel-good factor at this tournament for Kuzmova, and the fact that she really is only playing her first full year on the tour really makes her a little bit more of a problem for Pavlyuchenkova as she is still playing with no fear, nothing to lose, but a lot to gain. That changes as of next year, but for now it is about consolidating her place in the World’s Top 60.
Pavlyuchenkova has the pressure on her side. She’s the experienced veteran in this match-up and a former champion, so she will feel pressured to perform and encouraged to really get the results out of her second stint with coach Simon Goffin.
I think that Pavlyuchenkova will just about have enough experience to see her way through this particular encounter. The pressure of closing matches, serving for matches and being the player expected to prevail has not always been something she has coped well with, but she is a naturally aggressive player, so sometimes the unforced error count can get quite out of control, particularly in matches where she is not totally comfortable with her game and with the match itself.
The Russian sits outside the World’s Top-30 at present, which is a long way away from her highest ranking of No.13, but the former Linz champion has always struggled to maintain the consistency week-in and week-out to better that ranking and make the next step up to being a Top-10 player. Time is not on her side, but maybe reconnecting with Goffin and putting in those hard hours of practice can get her back up to where she belongs.
Prediction: Pavlyuchenkova in three sets
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