Laura Siegemund follows upset of Zheng Qinwen with one-sided loss to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova

“I tried not to do too many fancy things, but really stick with my clear plan,” is how Laura Siegemund explained her second-round upset of Zheng Qinwen, the second-place finisher at last year’s Australian Open.

“Then it was getting very physical, and I was thinking about my offseason, and why I’m doing all of this running all the time. And I told myself, now you have to run!”

The 36-year-old German was run off the court in the first set of her third-rounder with Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, and it didn’t get much better after that.

An extended break between sets merely delayed the inevitable as the 27^th-seeded Pavlyuchenkova prevailed, 6-1, 6-2.

Pavlyuchenkova, 33, is a three-time Australian Open quarterfinalist, and today played with an obvious comfort in Melbourne Park. Siegemund, playing with house money but still an ultra-fit, crafty player, tried to disrupt Pavlyuchenkova by any means necessary. But for the most part, she found herself on the run thanks to her opponent’s overwhelming artillery.

“She is very tricky opponent, such a good fighter,” said Pavlyuchenkova. “I just wanted to stay to the end with my game plan.”

Trailing 1-3 in the second set, the world feed commentator observed Siegemund as “rushing between the points and rushing the rally,” which is saying something considering the German’s deliberate service motion.

Siegemund struck 30 unforced errors to only 10 winners. She won one of seven second-serve points in the first set, and just two of 13 overall. She was, if I may, under siege.

This was the third meeting between the two—the first coming 18 years ago, at an ITF $25,000 tournament in Les Contamines, France. Nine years passed before their next encounter, in Stuttgart at the WTA level. Nine years later, they met again.

It took some time for Pavlyuchenkova to regain the head-to-head advantage—she won that very first meeting, before Siegemund turned the tables on home soil—but with it coming at a major, it was worth the wait.

The Russian advances to face the winner of Diana Shnaider and Donna Vekic, with the winner likely getting two-time defending champion Aryna Sabalenka.

“Still an amazing tournament for Siegemund,” the commentator noted. And the same can be said for her conqueror.