Kamlesh Barjati
Banned
- Joined
- 26 May 2011
- Messages
- 1,087
- Reaction score
- 31
On the WTA circuit, success at a young age is something that needs to be managed with intelligence. "Ambition too," adds Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, who is playing in the French Open round of 16 for the first time in her career. The maturity the no.14 seed developed after becoming pro is finally paying off.
The girl from Samara - a city known more for basketball and football - remembers the transition as a difficult one. "I don't mean to sound arrogant, but I won everything in the juniors. When I turned pro at 16, I had to learn how to lose. I started racking up disappointment after disappointment and I wasn't used to it. I started doubting myself, I felt awful. I started wondering whether I had what it took to succeed. It really affected me." Anastasia will turn 20 on 3 July.
"I'm a fighter"
Pavlyuchenkova's success on the junior circuit was indeed impressive. She won her first ITF tournament before the age of 18, qualified for the French Open juniors tournament at a mere 13 years of age, and was the top-ranked junior player on the ITF circuit a year later. While becoming pro wasn't an easy step, Anastasia, training under Jordi Vilaro at Barcelona Total Tennis Academy, wasn't the type to spend her time endlessly soul-searching.
"I'm a fighter, I never give up," she says, after telling us about her arrival on the women's circuit. "They all wanted to kill me. I was the new girl on the block." While she adjusted to the very different tennis played by the WTA top 100, her family rallied around her.
"Tennis is in my blood."
"In my family, tennis is in our blood. I'm a third generation tennis player," she says with a smile. "My brother started playing before I did. My dad trained him, and I took advantage of that when I got interested in the sport." It was her aunt who gave her the tennis bug when the French Open junior doubles winner was only 6 years of age.
With a grandmother in the Soviet national basketball team, a father in the national canoeing team, and a mother who swam at a competitive level, "Nastia" couldn't help but develop an extremely powerful tennis game. With her athletic build (1.77m and 72kg), she likes using her powerful forehand to dictate the rhythm from the baseline. She especially likes to hit down the line.
From Russia, with love
From 2007 to 2009, she trained at the Mouratoglou Tennis Academy, near Paris, where she picked up some French. "I learned a lot from Patrick (Mouratoglou). I needed a European base, but also new methods. We had some great times together." The next step was home, when she came of age, with her brother as her adviser. Then she made another important decision: to move to Cataluna. After training under Vilaro and Francis Roig, Anastasia made major progress.
"I'm a lot more mature since the Australian Open. I'm playing a much more consistent game," says the girl who made it to the quarters in Madrid by beating Samantha Stosur, last year's finalist at the French Open. "I still have a lot of work to do, but I know where I want to go. I'm still not satisfied," she says with determination. I don't have a choice; I can't ruin all my hard work and go backwards. I have to succeed."
Success comes at a price
For now, she's on the right track: she is currently ranked world no.15 (down from her career high of world no.14 in January). In February she took her third title at Monterrey, after defeating world no.6 Jelena Jankovic in the final. Her next match marks her second appearance in the round of 16 at a Grand Slam, and her first at the French Open. She is up against fellow Russian Vera Zvonareva, ranked 3rd in the WTA.
However, when pressed, Anastasia reveals the chink in her armour. "When I was young, I loved travelling, I loved it on the circuit. It was so easy, I was the best in my category. Now it's much more difficult. There's a lot of pressure, and sometimes I want to see something other than tennis. It's hard being so far from my friends and family." Her solution is to remain ambitious: "It stops me from doubting and makes me forget all the sacrifices I've made."
http://2011.rolandgarros.com/en_FR/news/articles/2011-05-28/201105281306602522019.html?promo=rss
The girl from Samara - a city known more for basketball and football - remembers the transition as a difficult one. "I don't mean to sound arrogant, but I won everything in the juniors. When I turned pro at 16, I had to learn how to lose. I started racking up disappointment after disappointment and I wasn't used to it. I started doubting myself, I felt awful. I started wondering whether I had what it took to succeed. It really affected me." Anastasia will turn 20 on 3 July.
"I'm a fighter"
Pavlyuchenkova's success on the junior circuit was indeed impressive. She won her first ITF tournament before the age of 18, qualified for the French Open juniors tournament at a mere 13 years of age, and was the top-ranked junior player on the ITF circuit a year later. While becoming pro wasn't an easy step, Anastasia, training under Jordi Vilaro at Barcelona Total Tennis Academy, wasn't the type to spend her time endlessly soul-searching.
"I'm a fighter, I never give up," she says, after telling us about her arrival on the women's circuit. "They all wanted to kill me. I was the new girl on the block." While she adjusted to the very different tennis played by the WTA top 100, her family rallied around her.
"Tennis is in my blood."
"In my family, tennis is in our blood. I'm a third generation tennis player," she says with a smile. "My brother started playing before I did. My dad trained him, and I took advantage of that when I got interested in the sport." It was her aunt who gave her the tennis bug when the French Open junior doubles winner was only 6 years of age.
With a grandmother in the Soviet national basketball team, a father in the national canoeing team, and a mother who swam at a competitive level, "Nastia" couldn't help but develop an extremely powerful tennis game. With her athletic build (1.77m and 72kg), she likes using her powerful forehand to dictate the rhythm from the baseline. She especially likes to hit down the line.
From Russia, with love
From 2007 to 2009, she trained at the Mouratoglou Tennis Academy, near Paris, where she picked up some French. "I learned a lot from Patrick (Mouratoglou). I needed a European base, but also new methods. We had some great times together." The next step was home, when she came of age, with her brother as her adviser. Then she made another important decision: to move to Cataluna. After training under Vilaro and Francis Roig, Anastasia made major progress.
"I'm a lot more mature since the Australian Open. I'm playing a much more consistent game," says the girl who made it to the quarters in Madrid by beating Samantha Stosur, last year's finalist at the French Open. "I still have a lot of work to do, but I know where I want to go. I'm still not satisfied," she says with determination. I don't have a choice; I can't ruin all my hard work and go backwards. I have to succeed."
Success comes at a price
For now, she's on the right track: she is currently ranked world no.15 (down from her career high of world no.14 in January). In February she took her third title at Monterrey, after defeating world no.6 Jelena Jankovic in the final. Her next match marks her second appearance in the round of 16 at a Grand Slam, and her first at the French Open. She is up against fellow Russian Vera Zvonareva, ranked 3rd in the WTA.
However, when pressed, Anastasia reveals the chink in her armour. "When I was young, I loved travelling, I loved it on the circuit. It was so easy, I was the best in my category. Now it's much more difficult. There's a lot of pressure, and sometimes I want to see something other than tennis. It's hard being so far from my friends and family." Her solution is to remain ambitious: "It stops me from doubting and makes me forget all the sacrifices I've made."
http://2011.rolandgarros.com/en_FR/news/articles/2011-05-28/201105281306602522019.html?promo=rss
