Against the background of the departure of all Americans and the 15th victory of Zverev: Pavlyuchenkova lost to Plishkova in the fourth round of the US Open

In the last year, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova made a significant step forward in her career.

This season will be remembered for her first reaching the Grand Slam finals and winning the gold medal in mixed doubles at the Tokyo Olympics.

However, at the US Open, she has not even been able to repeat her best result for ten years.

In general, the Russian woman did not perform very well at the majors throughout her journey. At competitions below a rank, an athlete could easily crush opponents, but as soon as it came to the largest championships, she invariably stumbled. With 12 titles in WTA tournaments until 2021, Anastasia could not boast of a single hit in the TBS semifinals (all six quarterfinals ended in defeats). It was possible to correct this only at Roland Garros, but it did not work to complete everything with a triumph. Barbora Kreichikova interfered with the victory in three games.

As for the US Open, Pavlyuchenkova only once got past the fourth round on the local courts. It happened exactly ten years ago, when a young Russian woman sensationally made her way to the quarterfinals, alternately dealing with the former first racket of the world Elena Jankovic and the famous Francesca Schiavone. Then only the future finalist, Serena Williams, managed to stop her. And since then, the US Open has become the most inconvenient of the majors for her. If in Australia and Great Britain she could boast of at least performances in the second week of the competition, then in New York she did not climb higher than the third round.

And the current rally seemed almost perfect to finally overcome this barrier. In early circles, Pavlyuchenkova looked very confident and lost only one game in total, and approached the fourth round match after a relatively easy victory over Varvara Gracheva. The only drawback was the fact that she had to face one of the most uncomfortable rivals - Karolina Plishkova, from whom she was able to win only two meetings out of eight. The ratio of victories and defeats is even worse for her only in confrontations with Ana Ivanovich (1: 8) and Simona Halep (0: 8).

Nevertheless, the chances of the Russian woman to gain the upper hand were assessed quite high, since the last two head-to-head fights remained with her.

First, she knocked out her opponent in the third round of the Australian Open, and then in the second at the Masters in Madrid.

Moreover, in both cases, she did not give the Czech woman any party, and in Spain she gave her a steering wheel at all, without giving up a single game in the first set.

And it cannot be said that this time Pavlyuchenkova looked weaker than Plishkova.

Yes, she lost the first game on her serve, but immediately made a reverse break and, right up to the end of the set, allowed her opponent to come close to winning a game at the reception only once.

Moreover, Anastasia herself had a chance to lead the story with a comfortable difference, but an excellent serve came to the aid of Carolina.

The denouement came when the score was 5: 6, when the Czech suddenly raised the pace and took the lead with a score of 40: 0 on the serve of the opponent.

First, she effectively struck the Russian woman in the counter-attack, and then rushed to the attack on the reception of the second ball.

Not without a gift from Pavlyuchenkova, who shot out in a not very difficult situation.

The situation seemed hopeless, but Anastasia pulled herself together and played two set points, but she didn't have enough strength for the third.

As is often the case with Pavlyuchenkova, who promotes a brightly attacking style, unforced errors became the main problem.

For the first set, there were 17 such balls, which, in comparison with actively won balls (10), led to a negative result.

Plishkova, though not perfect, looked more confident on the whole (14:10).

However, she did not manage to hold out at a similar level for the entire meeting.

In the second set, the ratio of indicators changed exactly the opposite, which gave the Russian woman an excellent chance to restore parity in the parties. And hope for a comeback appeared in the very first game on Plishkova's serve, which Pavlyuchenkova, albeit with difficulty, took. It took her four tries to finally make the break. It's a shame that the story failed with a score of 2: 0. Carolina took the first opportunity and quickly returned the favor.

The seventh game of the second set became the key in the confrontation.

Fairly "gorged" Plishkova spent it practically on straight legs, and each new blow was given to her with great difficulty.

Pavlyuchenkova had three break points, but parted with them almost without a fight.

Only in one case did Carolina have a really strong serve, while in the other two the initiative was on the side of the Russian woman.

Anastasia did not have any more chances to come out ahead, which was largely due to frequent breakdowns and hitting the net.

As a result, in the second set Pavlyuchenkova failed to reduce the number of unforced errors, which again reached 17. And two of them happened at a decisive moment - when the score was 30:30 in the ninth game.

At first, Anastasia miscalculated with the length, and then again could not throw the cable.

Plishkova won 7: 5, 6: 4 and advanced to the quarterfinals.

The rival of the Czech woman in the next round will be Maria Sakkari, who took 3 hours and 30 minutes to defeat the Canadian Bianca Andreescu.

The athletes finished sorting things out only at 02:14 am local time, which had never happened before in the history of the competition.

Also, the next day of the US Open in tennis was remembered for the defeat of three owners of the court at once.

Jenson Brooksby, as expected, lost to the first racket of the world Novak Djokovic - 6: 1, 3: 6, 2: 6, 2: 6, Reilly Opelka laid down his arms in the same way in a match with South African Lloyd Harris - 7: 6, 4: 6, 1 : 6, 3: 6, and Shelby Rogers could not cope with 18-year-old Briton Emma Radukanu, who left the qualification and became one of the main discoveries of the tournament - 2: 6, 1: 6.

Thus, for the first time in the history of the Open Era, no American tennis player will play in the US Open quarterfinals.

Among other things, Alexander Zverev won his 15th victory in a row, having lost a single game to Yannick Sinner. His unbeaten streak began at the Tokyo Olympics and continued at the Masters in Cincinnati, and the last time he lost at Wimbledon - in the fourth round was beaten by Felix Auger-Aliasim. At the same time, Matteo Berrettini defeated Oscar Otte and made his way to the quarterfinals in his third TBS in a row. Thus, he entered the elite group of four athletes. In addition to him and the German, this season only Daniil Medvedev and Novak Djokovic have been able to do this. By the way, it is with the Serb that the Italian will have to fight for a ticket to the semifinals, while the Russian will test the strength of the Dutchman Botik van de Sandshulp.