Pavlyuchenkova's form improved after Wimbledon when she made the quarterfinals in Båstad and then went on to reach her first final of the year at the Citi Open where she was beaten by Magdaléna Rybáriková. After falling at the first hurdle in Montreal, she cruised into the last eight in Cincinnati where she lost to Petra Kvitová. This resulted in her return to the top 20. However, she suffered a setback at the US Open when she was upset in the second round by wildcard Kristina Mladenovic. Pavlyuchenkova went on to win just one more match in her last three tournaments of the year when she beat Chanelle Scheepers in the first round of Tokyo before falling to seventh seed Li Na. Her ranking then plummeted to No. 34 after falling in the first round of Beijing. She subsequently finished the year ranked world No. 36.