Former Wimbledon champ Elena Rybakina fired her coach of five years, Stefano Vukov, just three days before the 2024 U.S. Open due to a “vicious” cycle of his verbal insults, Russian journalist Sofya Tartakova said during a recent appearance on the Tennis Bolshei YouTube channel.
Rybakina, ranked No. 4 in the world, withdrew from the U.S. Open in August due to a back injury after she defeated Australia’s Destanee Aiava in the first round.
“All these difficulties that she [currently] faces, she faces because of a lot of very heavy pressure associated with her former coach Vukov,” Tartakova said in Russian, as transcribed by The Sun.
“They say that Stefano actually came to the U.S. Open, that he was in New York, was ready to continue working with her, but Lena decided that they would break up because of a very difficult … I don’t want to say big words, not quite the correct attitude of her mentor towards her.
“That is, he ‘ate’ her all the time, as people who surrounded Lena say. Rybakina’s parents stood up for her because she could not break this vicious circle.”
Rybakina, 25, had worked with Vukov since a young age and went on to win her first Grand Slam at Wimbledon in 2022. She reached the Australian Open final in 2023.
“On one hand, this is the coach who worked with her since [a young age], and she herself, together with her family, chose him,” Tartakova said.
“It is clear that they were very close, she won the main achievements of her career thanks to their joint work, [but] her parents insisted that Lena change something in her tennis life, because there was pressure, and insults and bad words said to her. They were constantly from Vukov’s lips.
“And now Elena Rybakina is suffering and trying to get rid of psychological problems, so the situation is, of course, very difficult for her, but we’ll see.
“I tried to find out if there is official information that he is banned from the WTA Tour, because we discussed this several months ago, that a report was allegedly written on him and he was suspended from work.
“No one has officially confirmed this yet. We will find out very soon, if he finds another 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.”
Rybakina has not yet addressed the situation publicly.
