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Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova blamed "drunk fans who meowed and screamed" at her for being unable to concentrate and focus during her Australian Open second-round loss.
On Wednesday, former world No. 11 Pavlyuchenkova was in action at Melbourne Park, taking on Paula Badosa. What looked like a tight meeting on paper, ended in a pretty one-sided battle as Badosa won 6-2 6-3.
The match was played on Court 6, or as some are calling it now "the party court." The court has a courtside bar with a capacity of 400 people as a bar-style seating overlooks the court.
After losing to Badosa, Pavlyuchenkova said she felt like "in a restaurant."
“There were a couple of guys, I think they got drunk and they started to scream and meow [at me], I think maybe because I have this tattoo on my leg [which reads meow] or just because of course they had some drinks and so it was really disturbing," Pavlyuchenkova told British paper i.
Pavlyuchenkova not a fan of 'the party court' idea
In October, Australian Open tournament director Craig Tiley revealed "the party court" model and said he was hoping that's something they could expand in the future. In the interview with i, 32-year-old Pavlyuchenkova revealed she was asking herself during the match who came up with the idea of having a party court at the Australian Open.
Pavlyuchenkova didn't start the match well against Badosa, getting broken in the very first game of the match. In the fifth game, Badosa went up by a double-break before serving out for the first set in the eighth game.
After easily losing the first set, Pavlyuchenkova was able to hold on to her opening two service games and lead 2-1 in the second set. But then, Pavlyuchenkova suffered breaks of serve in the fifth and ninth games as Badosa went on to complete a two-set win over the Russian.
Before the Australian Open, Pavlyuchenkova suffered a first-round loss in Auckland and made the quarterfinal as a qualifier at the Adelaide International.