Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova is a veteran ball-striker whose flat, early-ball game has twice carried her to the Wimbledon quarter-finals, nine years apart. She did not play Wimbledon in 2026, and with no grass results to count she slid from 24th to 27th in the GTC Grass Rankings, ending on a GTC Grass Rating of 91.
Grass at a glance
- GTC Grass Rating: 91, 27th in the women’s rankings (24th before the season, on 100)
- Pillars: Lawn Form 24, Arsenal 61, Wimbledon 40, Nerve 36
- Nationality: Russia
- Best Wimbledon result: Quarter-final (2016, 2025)
- Grass titles: None yet
- Plays: Right-handed, two-handed backhand
- 2026 status: Did not play Wimbledon; flagged unavailable
How Anastasia plays on grass
Pavlyuchenkova hits hard and flat from both wings, and her backhand in particular is a shot she can use to take control of rallies from the first exchange. On grass, where the ball stays low and travels through the court, that flat trajectory is an advantage: her drives skid rather than sit up, and opponents who prefer time to set up are rushed. Her experience also shows in point construction. She is good at reading where a rally is going and at changing direction at the right moment.
The limits are movement and serve. She is not quick around the court, so opponents who move her side to side and make her hit on the run can expose her, and her serve does not deliver enough free points to make up for it. Her Arsenal score of 61 reflects strong groundstrokes held back by those two areas.
The Nerve score of 36 is shaped by the narrow margins of her game. When the timing is good she can beat seeded players; when it is off, close sets slip away quickly because she has fewer safe options to fall back on.
Grass record
Pavlyuchenkova made her Wimbledon debut as a wildcard in 2007 and reached the third round in 2008 and 2010. Her first quarter-final came in 2016. The following years were less productive, with first-round losses in 2017 and 2018, and she lost to Karolina Muchova in the third round in 2021.
The 2025 run was the late highlight of her grass career. She beat seed Ashlyn Krueger in the second round and went on to reach the quarter-finals for the second time, nine years after the first. She has not won a grass-court title.
The 2026 grass season
She played no grass matches in 2026. She was ranked 110th in early May, outside the cut for direct entry, and she did not appear in the Wimbledon main draw. With no matches played, her Lawn Form pillar collapsed to 24 and her rating fell from 100 to 91 by the end of Wimbledon. GTC rated her on the structure of her game and her past record, and she carries an unavailable flag.
Looking ahead to 2027
The first task is ranking. To return to Wimbledon she needs to be inside the direct-entry cut by late May, or to come through qualifying at Roehampton. A schedule built around one or two warm-up events, such as ‘s-Hertogenbosch, Nottingham or Eastbourne, would rebuild the Lawn Form pillar. Given the size of the gap in her ranking, a realistic target is a place in the main draw and a run to the second week, which would lift her rating back to around 100.
