LONDON : Unseeded Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova recovered from being robbed of a crucial point by an automated line-calling malfunction to beat Britain’s Sonay Kartal 7-6(3) 6-4 to reach the Wimbledon quarter-finals on Sunday for the second time.
The Russian former French Open runner-up was left fuming after falling victim to a clear mistake when she held game point at 4-4 on serve in the opening set under the Centre Court roof.
Instead she dropped serve to fall 5-4 behind but showed all of her vast experience to save a set point in the next game and break back before later going on to dominating a tiebreak.
Striking heavy groundstrokes into the corners, she kept the bustling 23-year-old Kartal on the run for much of the contest and won three games in a row from 2-1 down in the second set.
Kartal, the last remaining Briton in the women’s singles, showed great tenacity to push Pavlyuchenkova hard but the Russian held her nerve at 5-4 to seal an impressive win.
“I always thought I was not good enough on grass so this is incredible for me. Especially with me getting older, I am so impressed and proud for competing with the younger girls,” said the 34-year-old.
“My mental toughness is getting better. I used to be a little bit crazy in my head! But now I am learning to fight point by point.”
