When asked to describe her most recent on-court conflict, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova talked about a match at the China Open when she was so angry at Sloane Stephens that she wanted to smack her with a tennis racquet.
In the first round of the 2018 China Open in Beijing, Pavlyuchenkova won a long first set 7-6(8) and because of a shoulder problem called a physio while being 5-2 down in the second set. After receiving treatment, Pavlyuchenkova won two games in a row. Then Stephens, as Pavlyuchenkova explains, approached the chair umpire and sarcastically yelled: “So, the physio cured her?