Aryna Sabalenka‘s coach, Anton Dubrov, feels a significant fight between Elena Rybakina and her former coach, Stefano Vukov, could have led to the Kazakhstani asking for him to be suspended from the WTA Tour.
There has been much speculation about the actual reasons behind Rybakina’s decision to split with her longtime coach last month, just a few days before the US Open was due to begin.
Rybakina’s statement about the move was very brief, and she then dodged questions about it at her press conferences, further fueling rumors that something unsavory happened behind the scenes.
The 2022 Wimbledon champion pulled out of the US Open just a few days before her second-round match in New York and has not played a match since. Her most recent withdrawal was from the ongoing China Open.
Rybakina explained that she was nursing a back injury and hoped to return to the court as soon as possible. However, others in the media have said they do not believe the 25-year-old.
Rennae Stubbs says there is obviously more to her split from Vukov, while a well-known journalist outlined how Rybakina was suffering from psychological problems after working with the Croatian coach.
Dubrov has now made some interesting remarks about the situation. In an interview with Championat, Sabalenka’s longtime coach recounted how Rybakina regularly mentioned feeling unwell at tournaments throughout 2024.
“When we met at tournaments, she might not feel so good. She would just say: ‘Immune system is low.’ Neither I nor anyone from the team knows. We didn’t write to her personally, because we don’t think it’s quite right.”
The world No. 2’s coach admitted he had seen the rumors about why Ryabkina really split from Vukov on social media but said there has not been any discussion about it on the WTA Tour due to respecting the privacy of other teams.
“I saw it on social networks. This is not discussed within the tour. Since tennis is an individual sport, the teams remain within themselves due to competition. And it is rare that you enter into another team’s personal spaces.”
Although he does not know for sure whether Vukov was banned from the WTA Tour, Dubrov thinks either the Croatian coach or Rybakina could have requested the move depending on how their split happened.
“Sometimes, when a person finishes working with someone, he can write to the WTA in a fit of emotion, asking them to remove him from everything. Maybe it was his request. Maybe they had such a fight that she approached the WTA and said to remove his name, that he was coaching her. There were internal matters.”
“This was during the US Open, I didn’t really want to write to him, because I thought I’d stay as realistic as possible and keep the attention on my people. If there’s no news, I’ll write to Stefano, ask how he is.”
The truth about Rybakina’s split from Vukov will likely come out eventually. Hopefully, the former Wimbledon champion is doing okay and will return to the WTA Tour as soon as she is ready.
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