Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, at 16, has become the youngest to qualify for the 2008 Wimbledon Championships. This spunky youngster recently defeated Germany’s Kathrin Woerle 6-3, 6-0 and then dashed towards her family, friends and supporters to rejoice over her success just after the final ball was struck Thursday. The autograph hunters vied for the Russian tennis ace’s attention amidst the oodles of hugs, kisses and greetings that followed her win. ‘Wimbledon is something special, the grass is something unusual. Wimbledon has charm and tradition,’ remarked a beaming Anastasia.

Clearly the young lady is improving every passing day at this qualifying lark, after successfully having made it through the second round at the Roland Garros earlier this year. The Russian states Roland Garros as her favorite apparently because that it where she has given her best performance. This 2006 junior world champion was handed a wild card into the Wimbledon main draw previous year and sees no hassles on being the youngest player to qualify this year. ‘It doesn’t matter if I am the youngest, it’s always good to play and I am happy I qualified here,’ Anastasia quips.