Former world No 1 Andy Roddick has assessed that there has been \u201cgrowth\u201d in the relationship between Elena Rybakina and her coach Stefano Vukov after the Kazakh\u2019s 2026 Australian Open triumph.<\/p>\n
Rybakina<\/a> defeated world No 1 Aryna Sabalenka 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 in the Australian Open championship match to secure her second Grand Slam title.<\/p>\n The coaches of players who win the women\u2019s and men\u2019s singles events at the Australian Open now receive a trophy, and Vukov was presented with his award after Rybakina\u2019s victory.<\/p>\n Vukov also coached Rybakina to her maiden Grand Slam title at Wimbledon in 2022, but his presence in the world No 3\u2019s team is controversial given he was suspended for six months last year.<\/p>\n Rybakina started working with Vukov in 2019 and parted ways with the Croatian in August 2024 before the pair reunited at the start of 2025.<\/p>\n In February 2025, the WTA Tour Vukov banned Vukov from coaching Rybakina for one year following the conclusion of its investigation into a breach of their code of conduct. The Athletic<\/em> reported the details of Vukov\u2019s behaviour that led to his suspension<\/a>.<\/p>\n Vukov was cleared to return to Rybakina\u2019s team in August 2025 after successfully appealing his ban.<\/p>\n Andy Roddick makes bold prediction about how many Grand Slams Elena Rybakina will win<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Elena Rybakina schedule: Where will Australian Open champion play across 2026?<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Want more from Tennis365? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a> for tennis coverage you can trust.<\/strong><\/p>\n During the trophy ceremony in Melbourne, Rybakina appeared to allude to the controversy surrounding Vukov.<\/p>\n \u201cI would like to say thank you to my team,\u201d the 26-year-old said. \u201cWithout you, it wouldn\u2019t be possible, really. We had a lot of things going on, and I\u2019m really glad we achieved this result.\u201d<\/p>\n Speaking on his Served podcast, Roddick commented on Rybakina and Vukov\u2019s partnership after her Australian Open triumph.<\/p>\n \u201cI guess my point was, the conversation [around Rybakina], and rightfully so based on the last three years, since maybe Rybakina won Wimbledon in 2022 and there\u2019s been a lot of off-court stuff,\u201d said the 2003 US Open champion.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd by the way, I think it needs saying and we\u2019ll get back to this point, but like old coach comes back in after being kind of jettisoned, comes back in and she wins again.<\/p>\n \u201cNow, I don\u2019t know the dynamics of the interpersonal relationship.\u00a0What I do know is that her best tennis has been played when Vukov is present.<\/p>\n \u201cIt seems like there has been a change in conversation and the stylings of those conversations.<\/p>\n \u201cSo, I\u2019m happy for growth in a relationship and I hope that\u2019s settled and okay. Certainly, you can\u2019t argue with the results that they\u2019ve had together. I mean, she is just playing better when he\u2019s around.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd you can have opinions about a million other things, and I\u2019m sure you will. I\u2019m not saying everything is perfect, I\u2019m saying that the results are there when he is around as her coach. Many layers of which we\u2019re not going to get to in a recap episode.\u201d<\/p>\n READ NEXT: Australian Open: Awkward moment as Elena Rybakina\u2019s coach receives trophy and champion alludes to controversy<\/a> The post Andy Roddick gives verdict on Elena Rybakina\u2019s controversial coach after Australian Open win<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Former world No 1 Andy Roddick has assessed that there has been \u201cgrowth\u201d in the relationship between Elena Rybakina and her coach Stefano Vukov after the Kazakh\u2019s 2026 Australian Open triumph. Rybakina defeated world No 1 Aryna Sabalenka 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 in the Australian Open championship match to secure her second Grand Slam title. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1700","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1700","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1700"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1700\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Tennis News<\/h2>\n
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n