Elena Rybakina worked with coach Stefano Vukov for five years until Rybakina moved on from Vukov at the US Open this year. Soon after that happened, Vukov was removed from the WTA’s approved coaches list. Tennis fans likely rightly assumed that the sudden change of coach and the removal of Vukov meant something very bad had happened.

Rybakina also has had a weird year. She has withdrawn or retired from nearly 10 different events. The reason given was always some kind of injury, but that seems like a stretch, at least as far as a physical ailment. At no point did Rybakina imply she needed surgery for something so missing so many tournaments was odd.

Rybakina did have success on the court while Vukov was her coach, including winning Wimbledon in 2022. She was also ranked as high as No. 3 for a time. An issue was that even during her matches, Vukov was overly demonstrative and bullish towards the players. His behavior appeared to border on being abusive.

Unfortunately, that last part seems to be true. According to tennis commentator Sofya Tartakova, Rybakina has been dealing with the mental stress of working with Vukov for a long time. Tartakova said on Tennis Bolshie on YouTube, “…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 disorganized state, she cannot play. All these difficulties that she is facing right now come from the tremendous pressure associated with her former coach Vukov.”

Rybakina publicly defended Vukov for years even though there was much criticism over how he acted toward her. This is normal, though, as there has to be an inherent level of trust between a coach and a player. Otherwise, the relationship has no chance of working.

It is quite another for a player to be able to speak freely about any kind of abuse that might be happening just as it is difficult for anyone to be open about abuse. That is unfortunate, of course, but the hope is that Rybakina will be able to be in a better mental position for the rest of her career and life. Dropping Vukov should help her do that.

Tartakova added, “(I)t is clear that (Rybakina and Vukov) 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.”

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