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.
“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.
