“I didn’t touch the racket for five months”

One of the main surprises of the ongoing Roland Garros in Paris was the successful performance of the Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, which two years ago was in the final of this tournament, and now has reached the fourth round, occupying 333rd place in the world ranking. In an interview with a Kommersant correspondent Evgeny Fedyakov The 31-year-old tennis player talked about how she was treated for a severe knee injury and explained why she resumed playing this year after a long break.

– After announcing a long pause before last year’s Roland Garros due to a knee injury, you were only able to return in January at the Australian Open. How and where was the treatment?

– I got to the doctor who helped me through Igor Andreev (the captain of the Russian women’s team and personal trainer of the 25th racket of the world Anastasia Potapova, whom Pavlyuchenkova beat in the 1/16 finals.— “b”). This doctor works at the Bayern football club and flew with the German national team to the World Cup. The operation was avoided, but the treatment was complex, because in addition to a knee injury, they found a hernia in my lower back. At the same time, physical activity had to be minimized. I haven’t touched the racket for five months. And the rehabilitation plan in Munich was helped by the OFP coach who worked with the Chinese Li Na (two-time winner of the Grand Slam tournaments.— “b”), which at one time had a similar history with the knee.

– Can we say that now all the problems are left behind?

“The doctors prepared me for the fact that over time I might feel pain or discomfort again. But I set myself up optimistically, positively. And so far everything is fine. Well, except that sometimes I feel muscle pain when I overdo it with loads.

Has your training methodology changed much since your return?

– Only their volume has changed. Now I pay more attention to OFP. Well, I can apply many times in a row. For this, balls are rolled out to me with whole baskets. Before, because of my knee, I couldn’t do that.

– Do you control the amount of training time yourself?

– A whole team from the academy of Patrick Muratoglu is working with me now. I dreamed of such a team for a long time. It includes tennis and fitness coaches, as well as a physiotherapist. But I myself take the initiative, I say what I want to add. Then we sit down and make a plan together. I’m glad that the knee allows you to withstand decent loads. Sometimes I train on the court twice a day, which was impossible before the treatment.

“What did you come back for?”

– I want to put an end to tennis not because of an injury, but also then, as I see fit, on my own terms. In addition, I still love tennis, I dream of playing and therefore I am extremely glad that I managed to return. Of course, after the Australian Open, where I was practically carried off the court feet first (in her first match after Pavlyuchenkova’s return, she lost to Italian Camila Giorgi in 55 minutes.— “b”), I thought about what would happen if I didn’t win a single match again. But she still found the strength to continue. I want to get back to where I was before and see what happens. Prove to myself that I can still do a lot. Because in 2021, I had the feeling that I didn’t play well. I had good results, but I couldn’t enjoy them because of my knee.

– The dream of the top ten of the world ranking, which you barely reached two years ago, still remains?

– Certainly. I just don’t like to talk about it, and it’s not about superstition. A place in the ranking for me is just a number, but I want to win titles, I will not hide it. After all, his last championship cup for winning in singles (for winning in Strasbourg.— “b”) I held in my hands in 2018. True, the coolest achievement that I have, I think the gold of the Tokyo Olympics in the mixed doubles, where we won with Andrei Rublev. Yes, in the tennis world, many give priority to the Grand Slam tournaments, but we Russians have our own mentality. As a child, I watched the Olympics on TV until I got goosebumps. We all know what the Olympics are, but not everyone will explain what the Grand Slam is.

– At this tournament, you beat the young Czech Linda Frukhvirtova, who is already in the top hundred, as well as two younger Russians – Lyudmila Samsonova and Anastasia Potapova. Do you agree when they say that great experience is an added advantage? Or is it just words?

“Sometimes I think it’s just words. When I was 18, as Frukhvirtova is now, I heard that it is easier for young people to play, because they have nothing to lose. And now, it turns out, I have experience. But we must not forget that it is harder to recover at 31 than at 18. So in this sense, the advantage is still with the young. Another thing is skill, character. Now I just really want to win as many matches as possible, and then how it goes.

– In mid-May in Rome in the second round you lost to the leader of the world ranking Iga Sventek, having failed to take a single game from her. Such defeats can become a plus?

– After that match, I received so much negativity that I was surprised. I understand that it is not normal to lose with such a score. But still, my opponent was the 1st racket of the world, which, it seems, has already set a record for the number of sets won with a score of 6:0. So I tried to ignore those comments. I told myself that this could happen to anyone, anywhere. And then I looked at excerpts from this match and came to the conclusion that in terms of the game it was not the best for me, but not shameful either. By the way, it was often painful for me to review the lost matches before. And now I turned off the emotions, drew conclusions. And after returning to Nice (there is the Muratoglu Academy.— “b”) a week before the tournament in Strasbourg, where she reached the quarterfinals, she polished the details in her game.