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By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Saturday January 4, 2025
Elena Rybakina continues to defend her coach Stefano Vukov. The former Wimbledon champion, who earlier this week announced that she would bring Vukov back into her team along with coach Goran Ivanisevic, says that she is not happy with comments that have proliferated on social media regarding her coach, and the fact that he has been placed under provisional suspension by the WTA Tour.
“I can only say and I said it already before that he never mistreated me or it was never anything like that,” she said after falling to Iga Swiatek in straight sets in the United Cup semifinals on Saturday night in Sydney.
Rybakina also reiterated that she continues to be coached by Ivanisevic, who was with her team and the rest of Team Kazakhstan tonight at United Cup.
“I mean, I'm working with Goran,” she said. “I'm happy the way we work now for the couple of weeks. As I also said, that Stefano is rejoining the team because I know the person for six years, and there is a lot of things we can do outside of the court too.”
Vukov’s return sparked a wave of commentary on social media, especially after it was revealed that the WTA has placed him on suspension. Rybakina takes offense to those comments.
“The WTA can confirm that Stefano Vukov is currently under a provisional suspension pending an independent investigation into a potential breach of the WTA Code of Conduct,” a WTA spokesperson said in a statement, according to the Athletic.
“As part of the provisional suspension, Mr. Vukov is not eligible to obtain a WTA credential at this time. While the WTA does not typically comment on active investigations, we believe it is necessary to clarify this matter due to recent public statements that misrepresent the situation. We will not provide further details at this point in time.”
“Of course I'm not really happy with the situation,” she said. “I'm not happy with the comments which I see, especially from the people who are on the tour. It's active coaches, commentators. I don't think that it's fair.
“The only thing I can say is, like, he never mistreated me. I have respect to him for everything he did from the very beginning when I was [ranked] 200… You can name me other coaches who had the same success with players who have been 200 and then winning Grand Slam and being in the top.”