'Nastia' beats Schiavone; Serena next

Call her "Nastia."

That's her nickname, her Twitter name, the name that the tennis world can get its lips around.

Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova is a mouthful to U.S. Open tennis fans, and a handful to many of her opponents. The 20-year-old Russian was too much Monday for Francesca Schiavone, who fell to Pavlyuchenkova at Ashe Stadium, 5-7, 6-3, 6-4. It was a bit of a payback for Pavlyuchenkova, who lost to Schiavone in the quarterfinals of the French Open after leading 6-1, 4-1.

Nastia is the youngest player in the top 50 in the world. She's currently ranked 16th and was high as 13th in July. The French was her first major singles quarterfinal appearance, and now she will make another against the most daunting of opponents, Serena Williams.

"I don't know what to say much about her," Pavlyuchenkova said. "She's just awesome and a great athlete and she's showing so good tennis so far."

Pavlyuchenkova's match against Schiavone was uneven and unmemorable. There were 16 breaks of serve, with Pavlyuchenkova getting nine of them. Schiavone made 49 unforced errors, three more than Nastia.

"It's a match where I played two points and I don't play eight points," Schiavone said. "It's normal that the other one win."

Nastia can be a bit nasty with herself, shouldering the blame for every missed shot or bad serve.

"I get angry with myself always," Pavlyuchenkova said. "And I was like, 'Oh, my God, how can you miss this one?' She's also out there fighting and she makes me miss sometimes . . . So sometimes I have to realize that it's not only my fault."

She might have to forgive herself a lot against Williams. "I'm gonna say that I don't want to go out there and enjoy just being on the center court playing against Serena. I would like to try to do well, try to fight, and with my effort try to beat her, you know."