Elena Rybakina has issued a defence of her coach Stefano Vukov after the Croatian was reportedly suspended by the WTA and barred from obtaining accreditation for the upcoming Australian Open.
The Athletic say the WTA has confirmed that Vukov is provisionally suspended while under investigation for a breach of the tour’s Code of Conduct.
Just days prior to the ban, Rybakina re-hired Vukov to work alongside Goran Ivanisevic, and she has since spoken out regarding the controversy surrounding her coach.
“Well, I’m working with Goran, and these articles came out, I mean, I can only say and I said it already before that he never mistreated me or it was never anything like that,” Rybakina said at the United Cup.
“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. 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. It’s active coaches, commentators. I don’t think that it’s fair.
“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 ranked 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 a Grand Slam and being in the top.”
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