After her resurgent year of 2017, Pavlyuchenkova endured a rough start to her 2018 season. Across six tournament appearances in the first three months of the year, she logged in just two wins, over Kateryna Kozlova and Aliaksandra Sasnovich, at the Australian Open and Miami Open, respectively. These results caused her to drop out of the top 20. Kicking off her clay-court season in Stuttgart, Pavlyuchenkova finally gained some momentum by making her first ever quarterfinal at the tournament, beating Madison Keys and second seed Garbiñe Muguruza, the latter by via retirement. There, she succumbed to Anett Kontaveit in three sets. She then lost her openers in Madrid and Rome, in the hands of Samantha Stosur and Keys, respectively. As a result, she fell out of the top 30 for the first time since 2015.