More shocking details have emerged about Stefano Vukov’s behaviour towards Elena Rybakina, which prompted the WTA to ban the Croatian coach.
Concerning incidents of Vukov’s conduct towards Rybakina first made headlines at the 2024 Australian Open as he was seen shouting at her several times during matches.
The 2022 Wimbledon winner publicly defended her mentor, but she missed several tournaments over the next few months due to illness and injury.
Then on the eve of the US Open, they dropped a bombshell as Rybakina announced she had parted ways with Vukov – who had been her coach since 2019 – and not long after the WTA announced they would be launching an investigation into the Croatian’s behaviour.
Former world No 2 Goran Ivanisevic then joined Rybakina’s staff during the off-season, but Vukov returned to the fray for the Australian Open and Ivanisevic announced his departure not long after.
The WTA’s inquiry was concluded recently and it was confirmed that Vukov would be banned for one year with several disturbing details revealed in the initial report by The Athletic.
Vukov is said to have called the tennis player “stupid” and “retarded” while he also stated she would still be in Russia “picking potatoes” without him.
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But the publication has since released more information about events leading up to last year’s US Open after Rubakina parted ways with him.
It is reported that: “Told by a member of Rybakina’s team that he had been dismissed as her coach and to leave her alone, Vukov instead walked the lobby and hallways of her Manhattan hotel. He flooded her phone with text messages and more than 100 calls — according to sources with personal and professional relationships with Rybakina who were present at the hotel — as he sought another chance to convince Rybakina that her tennis career could not thrive without him.”
Several members of Rybakinas’s inner circle stated their concerns to WTA officials about the player as “they feared for the safety of the 2022 Wimbledon champion”.
A letter from WTA chief executive Portia Archer stated that she “also received an email from Rybakina’s mother requesting that he not make her daughter cry, and refused to coach her at one event as a result. The investigation also concluded that Vukov had violated the WTA’s no-contact directive, with Archer writing that he continued to ‘brazenly defy it even as this letter is penned’.”
The 37-year-old Vukov maintains that he hasn’t done anything wrong, but is yet to confirm if he will appeal against the ban.
The Athletic report claims that the relationship between coach and player “had become personal and romantic” as “Archer’s letter also noted the shift in their relationship. It said there was evidence that they stayed in the same hotel room in Melbourne for the Australian Open and that ‘there is increasing evidence that you are now involved in a romantic relationship’.”
Rybakina is yet to comment on the latest revelations as she previously just stated: “I’m just disappointed with the situation and how the process went. I’m not going to comment much on that any more.”
The post Elena Rybakina and Stefano Vukov saga: Wimbledon champion’s mother asked ‘that he not make her daughter cry’ appeared first on Tennis365.
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