Karolina Pliskova Suffers Shock Loss to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova at Australian Open 2020

World No.30 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova pulled off the upset over the No.2 seed Karolina Pliskova in straight sets 7-6(4), 7-6(3) in the third round of the Australian Open 2020. With this victory, the Russian gained her first win against Pliskova in seven matches.

Pavlyuchenkova edged her opponent with her 51 winners, while Pliskova managed to hit 35 winners. On the other hand, Pliskova was better on serve with 6 aces and 4 double faults against Anastasia’s 5 aces and 11 double faults. The Russian also committed more unforced errors than the Czech still managed to dominate Karolina on the bigger points.

Pavlyuchenkova edged Karolina Pliskova in the first set

Pavlyuchenkova opened Day 6 of the Australian Open 2020 in a glittering form, troubling Karolina Pliskova on her opening service game. The Russian forced the No.2 seed to save 6 break chances to hold her first service game, which lasted for 18 minutes.

Anastasia then took the next three games to edge ahead with a break. Pliskova, who struggled on groundstrokes to start, settled quickly to win the next three games, indicating the momentum shift.

At 6-5, the Czech squandered 5 opportunities breaking Pavlyuchenkova’s serve. The set was forced to a tie-break with the two players holding their serves. In the tiebreaker, Anastasia secured 4 minibreaks to win the set 7-6(7-4) after 1 hour and 17 minutes.

Pavlyuchenkova sealed the match with a second-set tiebreak win

Anastasia continued her momentum in the second set as she broke Pliskova in her opening service game. However, the World No.2 responded well to get the break back in the sixth game, levelling the set at 3-3. The games then went with the serve till.

Pliskova saved four breakpoints while serving at 6-5. On the other hand, Pavlyuchenkova saved 2 set points in the next game to force a second-set tiebreak. The World No.30 once again edged Pliskova in the tiebreaker and closed the set 7-6(3), winning the match in 2 hours and 30 minutes.

Up next for the Russian star is No.17 seed and 2016 champion, Angelique Kerber in the fourth round. The German edged past Camila Giorgi in a three-setter in the third round at Melbourne Park.