Pavlyuchenkova kicked off her 2013 season brilliantly by advancing to the final of the Brisbane International where she went down to third seed Serena Williams. Along the way, she had defeated the likes of sixth seed Petra Kvitová and fourth seed Angelique Kerber, in the second round and quarterfinals respectively. However, at the Australian Open, she fell at the first hurdle to Lesia Tsurenko. She was then defeated in her opening matches at the Open GdF Suez and Dubai Tennis Championships by Yanina Wickmayer and Ana Ivanovic respectively.