PARIS – When Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova won the Australian Open junior title in 2006, aged 14, it looked as though it would not be long before she would emulate the likes of Maria Sharapova and Svetlana Kuznetsova and start winning Grand Slams.
On Thursday, she finally reached a Grand Slam final in her 52nd appearance, beating Slovenia’s Tamara Zidansek in straight sets to move to within one win of French Open glory.
No other woman has taken so many attempts to reach a Grand Slam final, the previous highest number being the 44 it took Italian Roberta Vinci before she reached the 2015 U.S. Open final.
That is not to say the 29-year-old Pavlyuchenkova’s caree…
Keep on reading: Long and special road leads Pavlyuchenkova to brink of French Open glory