Andy Roddick warned “there’s an impending feeling of bad news coming” with regards to Elena Rybakina’s split from her coach Stefano Vukov, and now more details have emerged.
Rybakina announced on the eve of the US Open in August that she had parted company with Vukov after five years together. Their biggest title was their success at 2022 Wimbledon title while the Kazakh star also reached a career-high of No 3 in the WTA Rankings.
Vukov first came under fire during the 2023 Australian Open over how he talked to Rybakina during matches with some accusing him of using overaggressive gestures.
The Kazakh player defended her coach publicly and she continued to be one of the main players on the Tour as the pair won title after title.
But the 2024 season has been a difficult one for the 25-year-old as she has withdrawn from a dozen tournaments due to health and fitness problems.
Recently she pulled out of the US Open shortly before her second-round match and has also skipped the Korea Open and this week’s China Open.
Ahead of the Asian swing, former world No 1 Roddick stated: “There’s obviously more to the story but we can’t have an opinion on something you don’t know anything about.”
He added: “Her coach got banned from [the Tour] – there’s a coaching list of available coaches and they kicked him off. You don’t get kicked off for nothing.”
And now journalist Sofya Tartakova has given more details about how Vukov’s behaviour has impacted Rybakina.
“Many people do not understand the reason for her health problems. They say that she has back problems, that is the official reason; she has also had stomach problems,” she told the Tennis Bolshei YouTube channel.
“However, as people who were involved in her professional career have mentioned, right now Elena is under a lot of stress, it is something psychosomatic. She is in a chaotic moment, in a completely disorganised state, she cannot play. All these difficulties that she is facing right now come from the tremendous pressure associated with her former coach Vukov.
“They say that Stefano had actually travelled to the United States and was ready to continue working with Elena, but that she decided that they were going to break up because of… I don’t want to use too big words, but let’s say because of the not quite correct attitude towards her.
“That he ‘ate’ her all the time, as people around Elena used to say. Her parents stood up for her, because she could not get out of this vicious circle.
“On the one hand, we are talking about the coach who has been with her since she was 17, who she, together with her family, chose. On the other hand, it is clear that they were very close, that she lived the best moments of her career thanks to working together, but her parents insisted that Lena needed a change in her tennis life: there was pressure, insults, bad words that constantly came from Vukov’s lips.
“And now she is suffering, trying to get rid of these psychological problems. The situation is very difficult for her, we will see.”
Vukov’s name has apparently been removed from the list of WTA-approved coaches, but there has been no official confirmation that has been banned.
Tartakova added: “I have tried to find information about whether he is sanctioned within the WTA Tour, because we talked about this months ago, that there was supposedly a statement that he was suspended within the circuit. Nobody has confirmed this officially. We will find out soon, if he finds a new protégé then this ban does not exist.
“But according to Vukov, as he positions himself, he does not have any ban. But it was a big surprise that Lena stopped working with him.”
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