Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova stated that for the first time in her career she would be forced to take a long break from tennis due to injury.
The world number 14 will be out of the WTA tournament for at least 10 weeks with a knee injury. Speaking to Sport Express, he stated that during the four weeks in that period he was advised not to play tennis in order to maximize his recovery. He has been struggling with a knee injury in recent months, but continues to play under the direction of the physios.
“It’s like a disease from being a tennis player,” admits Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. “Because of the ranking competition, all the tournaments seem important to us, the players, it’s hard to stop and rest.”
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“My knee has been bothering me for a season and a half. I play with pain and periodically take painkillers.”
“This is not a complaint, but I am not completely satisfied with the work of my physiotherapist who travels with me to all the tournaments. They do not take this matter seriously. It took me a long time to do an MRI and process everything from the test results.”
The setback comes after he started the frustrating 2022 season when the Russian tested positive for COVID-19 upon arrival in Australia. He believes that the virus has exacerbated all old wounds, including his knee. So far in the 2022 season, he has only played one tournament, namely the Australian Open before losing to Sorana Cirstea in the third round.
As a result of the injury, the 2021 French Open runner-up will be forced to miss tournaments in Miami and Indian Wells after he aims to return sometime in April or May. Although the date of his return will be determined based on the results of his medical evaluation.
“I hope in four weeks I will be back on the pitch and able to play. I’m going to do another MRI six weeks later. I hope that the test will show significant progress and in another month, I will return to the tournament,” explained Pavlyuchenkova.
“I spent several days digesting the information. For a long time, I didn’t realize that I was going to miss playing tennis so much.”
Pavlyuchenkova is targeting several competitive matches ahead of this season’s French Open, where she will maintain a fairly high ranking points.
