Elena Rybakina’s coach, Stefanos Vukov, was banned by the WTA.
Elena Rybakina has been the favourite child of journalists and tabloids who seek headlines every day. Having raised eyebrows as a teenager with her performances on the court, she has been on the news for multiple off-field activities. The ban imposed by the Women’s Tennis Association on her former coach Stefanos Vukov has been a topic of discussion in the WTA circuit.
Elena Rybakina began her career representing Russia at junior tennis championships in 2014 before moving to Kazakhstan in 2018. She started tasting success from 2019, and her best efforts came in the next two years, having reached the semifinals of the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 and becoming the first Kazakh player to win a Grand Slam when he lifted the championship in 2022. It was Stefanos who guided her to success.
As success started following her, the eyeballs of the fans and media started following her matches and the support staff. They noticed weird things during her play; Stefanos would shout at her in the view of advising the game. Sometimes, the shouting even went down to the level of abuse, which caused discomfort among the Tennis community.
She was at the top of her game on the court, reaching the final of the Australian Open 2023 and winning the Indian Wells Open. But it was Stefanos’s courtroom behavior that made headlines. A few people in the circuit raised the same concerns during Practice sessions also as he would describe her as “Stupid” and “Retarded”. But Rybakina was backing him, and with results in her favor, nothing seems to worry others.
But WTA started a formal investigation on this. On January 31, less than a week after the Australian Open, officials called both Rybakina and Stefanos and confirmed that they had violated the Code of Conduct multiple times and, as a result, would be banned from the WTA tour. While the 38-year-old denied any wrongdoing against Rybakina, she has given mixed responses.
The Russian-born-Kazakh had parted ways with her coach before the US Open, and Stefanos had to be physically removed from the Hotel she was staying in. She has been suffering multiple injuries, and the circuit witnessed numerous withdrawals from her without proper reasoning. Her Kazakh national coach, Lovro Zovka, learned during the Cincinnati Masters that she was suffering from insomnia.
The former Wimbledon champion was so disoriented that he had to remind her of scores during her second-round match. After Stefanos departed, she joined hands with Goran Ivanišević. But in a shocking turn of events, Rybakina expressed her desire to rejoin Stefanos and was adamant that her former coach never abused her.
Rybakina continues to compete in the circuit, with the latest being her semifinal appearance in Dubai, but Stefanos’s ban meant that she can’t accompany her to the matches, and the world awaits the tenure for which the 38-year-old coach will be banned.
