Pavlyuchenkova began her clay court season at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix where she lost to second seed Vera Zvonareva in the round of 16. She then defeated Zheng Jie, Marion Bartoli and Samantha Stosur to reach the quarterfinals of the Mutua Madrid Open where she lost to Julia Görges. The following week in Rome, Pavlyuchenkova advanced to the round of 16 where she lost to third seed Victoria Azarenka in three sets. Pavlyuchenkova was the 14th seed at the French Open and advanced to her first ever Grand Slam quarterfinal after racking in wins over Yaroslava Shvedova, qualifiers Mona Barthel and Nuria Llagostera Vives and third seed Zvonareva. There, she came up short to defending champion Francesca Schiavone in three sets despite having been two games away from upsetting the Italian.