Some players are inherently talented, while others receive their traits through their family lineage. In the sporting world, the latter is utterly common. Take the World No.1, Iga Swiatek for example. Her father was an Olympic rower and represented Poland in the Seoul Olympics of 1988. The Williams sisters inherited tremendous power to rise to the top and when it comes to World No.27, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, she has also inherited athletic genes from her family. But who are Pavlyuchenkova’s parents?

Pavlyuchenkova inherited athletic genes from both of her parents. While her father, Sergey Pavlyuchenkova, was a rower by profession. Her mother, Marina Pavlyuchenkova, was a former professional swimmer. Anastasia though stayed away from water activities and chose the tennis court for her sports career. However, she was not alone in her quest to start her training. Her father was her first coach before she moved to France at the age of 15, to train at Patrick Mouratoglou Academy.

It’s not uncommon in tennis for the whole family to be involved in the making of a champion. Serena and Venus Williams’s father too laid the foundation of the legends and the same happened with Pavlyuchenkova. Her athletic genes blessed her with innate strength, and her father laid the foundation as a coach. But her father was not the only one from her family who played a big role in her tennis journey. There was another part of the puzzle that made it complete: her brother!

Aleksandr Pavlyuchenkova, too, contributed to his sister’s tennis journey as a coach. Aleksandr, himself, was a professional tennis player with a career-high doubles ranking of World No. 258 in 2018. He also won the ATP Challenger doubles championship at the 2018 Fergana Challenger. Aleksandr later collaborated with his sister in 2020, for around 4 years, helping her win the Olympic gold medal in Tokyo in the doubles event. How did Pavlyuchenkova approach her brother to take up the role of her coach though?

Why did Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova turn to her brother for a coaching role?

It all started at the beginning of the 2021 season. Pavlyuchenkova had lost to Naomi Osaka at the Australian Open 2021, and the Tokyo Olympics was not far away. Hence, she leveraged her brother’s experience and their familial bond to help her get through the coaching crisis. The Russian tennis star had split with her former coach Philipp Sumyk and needed guidance from someone who understood her game. That paved the path for brother-sister collaboration for the Olympics!

Pavlyuchenkova said, “I always like to work with him. It’s just that he wanted to restart his career, we were late maturing, he was younger, I was younger, and probably there was some miscommunication, but now I feel like we’ve grown up and I’ve always enjoyed and I love how he sees and approaches tennis.”

It’s certainly easy to work with family. Aleksandr had seen Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova grow from being an amateur player to a professional. As they worked together, everything paid off in the end. Pavlyuchenkova had a terrific season in 2021, with her brother by her side!