In 2002, while he was about to play a quarterfinal at Roland Garros, he jumped into a car and made an express round-trip to Germany to attend the birth of his son.

"[citation needed] In 2006, Pavel played what John McEnroe considers to be the best first round match at a Grand Slam he has ever seen at the US Open in August 2006, where he lost to Andre Agassi in four sets; 6–7(4), 7–6(8), 7–6(6), 6–2; taking three and half hours.

[4] At the same tournament, he also played two more exhibition matches, one facing Goran Ivanišević, while in the other he paired up with Ilie Năstase against Mansour Bahrami and Yannick Noah.

[citation needed] He attended the Olympic Games four times, and played for 20 years on the Romania Davis Cup team.

[5] He also coached ATP Tour players Horia Tecău, Benjamin Becker, Marius Copil, Filip Jianu, the Romanian Davis Cup Team, and worked with Jelena Janković, Tamira Paszek and Simona Halep on the WTA Tour.