Pavlyuchenkova Announces Grass Season Skip After Wimbledon Wild Card Snub

Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova made an announcement of stepping away from the 2023 grass court season.

It comes as a consequence of not being able to secure a wildcard for the 2023 Wimbledon Championships. After a notable hiatus of nine months owing to an injury , Pavlyuchenkova had reappeared on the WTA Tour with a bang, at the start of this year.

The sizzling comeback of the 31-year-old Russian, marked by her reaching the quarterfinals in the 2023 Roland Garros, had rekindled the spirits of her fans. However, she was defeated by the eventual finalist Karolina Muchova.

Despite her impressive resurgence and indomitable fighting spirit, it has recently emerged that Pavlyuchenkova failed to garner a wildcard to partake in the prestigious Wimbledon Championships, as she expected already in Paris . She took to social media to express her disappointment and clarify her ensuing decision to the world.

"Hi all, I want to announce that I will skip grass season this year. Unfortunately, after nine months of absence last year, I'm not able to enter some tournaments through my ranking and I didn't receive wildcards to play the grass events I was hoping for."

With protected rankings, players can enter only two Grand Slam tournaments, and since Pavlyuchenkova played the Australian Open and the Roland Garros, she can not enter the third one, Wimbledon.

"Additionally, I already used my two Grand Slam protected rankings at the Australian Open and Roland Garros, meaning that I cannot take part in Wimbledon."

While the snub from Wimbledon Championships is evidently a setback for the Russian, she remains undeterred and is keen to focus her energy on the upcoming tournaments.

"It comes with a big disappointment but I will focus on smaller tournaments in July on clay, prepare the rest of the season and hopefully climb my way up into the US Open main draw. See you soon and thank you so much for your support."