Former Wimbledon champ Elena Rybakina fired her coach of 5 years, Stefano Vukov, simply three days earlier than the 2024 U.S. Open resulting from a “vicious” cycle of his verbal insults, Russian journalist Sofya Tartakova stated throughout a latest look on the Tennis Bolshei YouTube channel.
Rybakina, ranked No. 4 on the planet, withdrew from the U.S. Open in August resulting from a again damage after she defeated Australia’s Destanee Aiava within the first spherical.
“All these difficulties that she [currently] faces, she faces due to loads of very heavy stress related along with her former coach Vukov,” Tartakova stated in Russian, as transcribed by The Solar.
“They are saying that Stefano truly got here to the U.S. Open, that he was in New York, was able to proceed working along with her, however Lena determined that they might break up due to a really troublesome … I don’t need to say massive phrases, not fairly the proper angle of her mentor in direction of her.
“That’s, he ‘ate’ her on a regular basis, as individuals who surrounded Lena say. Rybakina’s mother and father stood up for her as a result of she couldn’t break this vicious circle.”
Rybakina, 25, had labored with Vukov since a younger age and went on to win her first Grand Slam at Wimbledon in 2022. She reached the Australian Open closing in 2023.
“On one hand, that is the coach who labored along with her since [a young age], and she or he herself, collectively along with her household, selected him,” Tartakova stated.
“It’s clear that they had been very shut, she received the primary achievements of her profession due to their joint work, [but] her mother and father insisted that Lena change one thing in her tennis life, as a result of there was stress, and insults and dangerous phrases stated to her. They had been always from Vukov’s lips.
“And now Elena Rybakina is struggling and attempting to eliminate psychological issues, so the state of affairs is, after all, very troublesome for her, however we’ll see.
“I attempted to seek out out if there’s official info that he’s banned from the WTA Tour, as a result of we mentioned this a number of months in the past, {that a} report was allegedly written on him and he was suspended from work.
“Nobody has formally confirmed this but. We are going to discover out very quickly, if he finds one other protégé, then this ban doesn’t exist. However in response to Vukov, as he positions himself, he doesn’t have any ban. However it was an enormous shock that Lena stopped working with him.”
Rybakina has not but addressed the state of affairs publicly.
