By Richard Pagliaro | @TennisNow | Saturday, January 4, 2025
Photo credit: Elena Rybakina Instagram

Elena Rybakina backs coach Stefano Vukov—and is calling out some coaches on Tour for their criticism of him.

Last week, Rybakina announced Vukov, who previously coached her for more than five years, was rejoining her team as an assistant coach under head coach Goran Ivanisevic.

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After Rybakina's announcement, The Athletic broke the news that Vukov is serving a provisional suspension that prevents him from receiving a coaching credential for this month's Australian Open.

Some coaches and commentators, including Pam Shriver and Rennae Stubbs, have criticized Vukov for his treatment of Rybakina.

World No. 6 Rybakina said Vukov has not mistreated her—and reiterated she's not happy seeing critical comments from other coaches. 

"Of course I'm not really happy with the situation. I'm not happy with the comments which I see, especially from the people who are on the tour," Rybakina told the media at United Cup in Sydney. "It's active coaches, commentators. I don't think that it's fair.

"Yeah, but 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 200 all the way what we did, like, I don't know. 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."

Ivanisevic, who has coached Novak Djokovic and Marin Cilic to Grand Slam championships, was reportedly not in the loop on Vukov's return and blindsided by the news.

However, Rybakina said she's happy with how her partnership with Ivanisevic is proceeding, but did not say if her new coach is happy with her former coach's return to the team.

"Well, I'm working with Goran, and these articles came out, I mean, I can only say and I said it already before that [Stefano Vukov] never mistreated me or it was never anything like that.

"I mean, I'm working with Goran. 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."