Eurosport star and former world No 7 Barbara Schett has questioned the \u201cinsane\u201d way that Leylah Fernandez is treated by her father Jorge.<\/p>\n
Player welfare and treatment from coaches are back in the spotlight amid the controversy surrounding Elena Rybakina\u2019s relationship with Stefano Vukov.<\/p>\n
Croatian Vukov has been suspended for a year by the WTA, who found he had breached their code of conduct by mentally abusing his former charge.<\/p>\n
Rybakina has stuck by her former coach, who she attempted to bring back into her team in January, and has bemoaned a lack of support from other WTA players on tour.<\/p>\n
Speaking to Kicker<\/em><\/a>, Schett claimed that players were \u201cafraid of personal consequences\u201d should they speak out on such situations.<\/p>\n However, she also raised her concerns about the dynamic between current world No 28 Fernandez<\/a> and her father.<\/p>\n She said: \u201cThe problem is that many players don\u2019t dare to say anything because they\u2019re afraid of personal consequences.<\/p>\n \u201cFor example, I was incredibly afraid of Jelena Dokic\u2019s father. I would probably never have said anything because I thought he would kill me.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was perhaps a little different with Dokic than with Rybakina because she was also beaten, but in your mid-20s you may not yet know what is really going on.<\/p>\n \u201cPerhaps you don\u2019t find it as tragic as you do later. But I believe that a number of players have already spoken to the WTA about Rybakina and Vukov. It is important that anonymity is maintained because they are simply afraid.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd I am also curious to see what happens to Leylah Fernandez\u2019s father because the way he treats his daughter is insane. It is terrible that something like this still exists today and is sometimes accepted.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018Elena Rybakina was brainwashed by Stefano Vukov\u2019, claims former WTA star<\/a><\/p>\n WTA Rankings world No 1 race: Iga Swiatek could face a long wait to replace Aryna Sabalenka at the top<\/a><\/p>\n Former world No 13 and 2021 US Open runner-up Fernandez has been coached by her father across her career, winning three WTA Tour titles.<\/p>\n Originally from Ecuador, Jorge moved to Canada as a child and was a semi-professional footballer before turning his attention to tennis coaching, working with daughters Leylah and Bianca despite a lack of experience.<\/p>\n WTA star Fernandez has never publicly raised concerns regarding her father and has yet to respond to Schett\u2019s comments.<\/p>\n However, speaking at the Australian Open back in January 2023, the 22-year-old praised her father for helping to improve her mental strength.<\/p>\n \u201cMental is extremely important. I\u2019m very grateful my parents, especially my dad, has reinforced that,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cHe hasn\u2019t really taught me about tennis or technique but more of the mental side of the sport. Because it\u2019s hard. You\u2019re all alone out there on the court.<\/p>\n \u201cMost of the time you don\u2019t have a coach with you, or the coach can\u2019t talk to you during points.\u201d<\/p>\n Fernandez last played at the Dubai Tennis Championships last week, where she was beaten in round one by Elise Mertens.<\/p>\n She is next set to be in action at Indian Wells, which begins next week.<\/p>\n Read Next<\/strong>:\u00a0WTA Indian Wells 2025 Entry List: Emma Raducanu gets direct entry as big name wildcard confirmed<\/a><\/p>\n The post Leylah Fernandez\u2019s father slammed for \u2018the way he treats his daughter\u2019<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Eurosport star and former world No 7 Barbara Schett has questioned the \u201cinsane\u201d way that Leylah Fernandez is treated by her father Jorge. Player welfare and treatment from coaches are back in the spotlight amid the controversy surrounding Elena Rybakina\u2019s relationship with Stefano Vukov. Croatian Vukov has been suspended for a year by the WTA, […]<\/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-73","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73","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=73"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=73"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=73"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=73"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}WTA Tour News<\/h2>\n