After Serena Williams, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova becomes second lowest-ranked player in history to reach French Open 4R

World No. 333 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova is now the second lowest-ranked player ever to reach the fourth round of the French Open, after Serena Williams in 2018. She is also the fourth player ranked outside the WTA's top 200 to reach the Round of 16 at Roland Garros in the Open Era, and the first since Williams in 2018.

Pavlyuchenkova defeated Anastasia Potapova in her third-round contest on Friday, June 2. After an evenly fought match, she won the last nine games in a row to triumph 4-6, 6-3, 6-0 in one hour and 51 minutes.

It is a far cry from their previous meeting in Istanbul 2021, when Pavlyuchenkova lost 7-6(2), 6-7(8), 6-4 to Potapova in three hours and 20 minutes.

Pavlyuchenkova's ranking plummeted as she was sidelined for much of the 2022 season due to a knee injury. She has now advanced to the second week in Paris for the third time in her career, and the 10th time at a Major. Her best result at Roland Garros was a runner-up finish to Barbora Krejcikova in 2021.

Williams, meanwhile, was ranked World No. 451 when she reached the last 16 in Paris in 2018, the year she made headlines for her catsuit ensemble. She was drawn against Maria Sharapova in the last 16 but pulled out of the tournament before the match due to a pectoral injury.

Across all Grand Slams, only nine players have reached the fourth round while ranked lower than Pavlyuchenkova's No. 333 — Emma Raducanu (No. 338, Wimbledon 2021), Martina Hingis (No. 349, Australian Open 2006), Tatiana Golovin (No. 354, Australian Open 2004), Serena Williams (No. 451, French Open 2017), Kaia Kanepi (No. 451, US Open 2017), Victoria Azarenka (No. 683, Wimbledon 2017), Kim Clijsters (unranked, US Open 2009), Justine Henin (unranked, Australian Open 2010), and Tsvetana Pironkova (unranked, US Open 2020).

Pavlyuchenkova will next take on 28th seed Elise Mertens, who upset third seed Jessica Pegula 6-1, 6-3 in one hour and 22 minutes in her third-round clash.

---

Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova's injury troubles and her comeback: A recap

Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova picked up a left knee injury at the Australian Open last year, pushing her into an extended time on the sidelines. She was out for 10 weeks after that and made a return in Madrid and Rome.

While Pavlyuchenkova partnered with Veronika Kudermetova to win the doubles title at the Internazionali BNL d'Italia in Rome, she later stated that she was in too much pain and needed more time to fully recover.

The Russian sat out the rest of the 2022 season and made her comeback at the Adelaide International 2 earlier this year. She has since taken part in eight tournaments, with her best result being a quarterfinal finish at the Strasbourg Grand Prix in France.