Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova wrote “Too old but still here!” on the camera as she left court after beating Donna Vekic to reach her fourth Australian Open quarter-final on Sunday, a sign-off she said was only half a joke.

The Russian 27th seed said she was surprised to make it to the last eight but thought the question of whether 33 was too advanced an age to compete was better directed elsewhere.

“I’m just having fun this year with this signing and calling myself too old to be on tour, which kind of part of it is true,” she told reporters.

“The question is to the young girls because I’m still here and I’m in the quarter-final. Maybe better to ask them why I’m still here and I’m still winning.”

The 2006 Australian Open junior champion said she sat her team down last year and explained that she would be taking a different approach to preparations for her 20th season as a professional.

“Honestly, I hate pre-seasons. I’m just going to take it day by day, one practice at a time, then we see how it goes. It was kind of laid-back, chill,” she added.

“My goal was to keep the motivation and hunger for this Australian Open and for this season in general. Well, I think I managed to do that.”

Victories over Yuan Yue, Anastasia Potapova and 37-year-old Laura Siegemund got her into the fourth round, where she beat Vekic 7-6(0) 6-0 on Sunday after the Croatian injured her knee.

“I’m always pleased about winning but I have a mixed feelings because she seemed to be injured in the end,” Pavlyuchenkova said.

“That’s not really the way you obviously want to go into the quarter-final.”

Pavlyuchenkova’s reward is a meeting with world No.1 and double defending champion Aryna Sabalenka, whom she has beaten in two of their three meetings.

“I don’t even think about my record against her, I didn’t even know it,” Pavlyuchenkova said.

“It was a while ago, she’s obviously a different player now. Hopefully, I can bring some great tennis and try to compete against her power.

“I have zero pressure this tournament whatsoever.”

Reuters