Kazakhstani star, Elena Rybakina parted ways with her long-time coach, Stefano Vukov, just before the 2024 US Open. After that, she brought in Novak Djokovic’s ex-coach Goran Ivanisevic to her team. However, recently, Rybakina announced that Vukov will rejoin her team for the 2025 season. Stefano Vukov has helped Rybakina achieve a lot of things in the last few years. However, still, the coach has been in the headlines for some wrong reasons. Amid all these, recently a new development came in surrounding the 37-year-old Croatian, and after hearing about those things fans have now started to question Elena Rybakina’s decision.

What is the fuss all about, though? Well, recently a WTA spokesperson confirmed that Stefano Vukov is currently suspended by the WTA. “The WTA can confirm that Stefano Vukov is currently under a provisional suspension pending an independent investigation into a potential breach of the WTA Code of Conduct,” said the spokesperson. Although, Vukov has denied breaching the code of conduct and also said that he has never abused anyone, still this news has caused massive havoc in the tennis world. Reason?

Over the last few years, there have been multiple such instances where we have seen Elena Rybakina stepping up to show support towards Vukov. She literally debunked all the allegations made against him with her strong support. For example, during an instance, we saw WTA legend Pam Shriver say, “I hope she (Rybakina) finds a coach who speaks and treats her with respect at ALL times and does not ever accept anything less.”

Then after hearing this, Elena Rybakina said, “[Vukov] is a passionate coach, with a lot of knowledge about tennis. Unlike people who are making these comments, he has great knowledge about me as a person and as an athlete. Those who know me well will know that I would never accept a coach that didn’t respect me and all our hard work.” Even later on, Rybakina said it wasn’t true that she was verbally insulted or abused by her ex-coach.

However, now with this recent development, it seems Vukov will not be able to obtain credentials for the WTA tournaments. So, it’ll be interesting to see how it goes on from here in Melbourne during the AO. However, some of the fans recently shared their views on the same on X. What are they saying?

Tennis fans taking a jibe at Elena Rybakina for bringing back Stefano Vukov into her team

Talking about controversies, it all started with a previous comment from tennis insider Craig Shapiro. In August 2024, shortly after Elena Rybakina’s withdrawal from the US Open, Shapiro sparked a fair bit of controversy by stating, “Right now, reliable sources telling me that Vukov has been removed from the official WTA coaches list, which signifies a ban.” After that, we’ve several tennis experts sharing their thoughts on the same. However, Elena Rybakina’s support for her ex-coach debunked all the claims about the same.

Recently, the new developments surrounding Stefanos Vukov’s suspension have now yet again brought the critics on the same page. One of the fans showcased a fair bit of disappointment over Elena Rybakina’s decision by saying, “So dissapointed in my girl Elena. Stop defending that man.”

Previously we saw tennis legends sharing their thoughts about Vukov’s removal from the list of approved coaches by the WTA. For example, Andy Roddick said, “Her (Elena Rybakina) coach got banned from [the Tour] – there’s a coaching list of available coaches and they kicked him off. You don’t get kicked off for nothing.”

After seeing this recent update on Stefano Vukov a fan tweeted, “It looks like she (Rybakina) does not want others to decide whether his behaviour was abusive or not which is fair enough. But she could make that clear in a statement and move on with her career. This now looks very complicated. Goran blind sided, definitely not staying.”

Just a few days ago, we saw Elena Rybakina keeping suspense about her true feelings about Ivanisevic’s inclusion to her team. Now, after seeing all these things it seems fans are now a bit curious to know about Goran Ivanisevic’s future in Elena Rybakina’s team.

Stefanos Vukov’s “frantic and intense” style of on-court coaching to the typically stoic Elena Rybakina has often raised a few eyebrows in the tennis world. For example, previously, renowned journalist Sofya Tartakova stated that Elena Rybakina was “suffering” due to “tremendous pressure associated with her former coach Vukov.” She even claimed, “There was pressure, insults, bad words that constantly came from Vukov’s lips.” Now after seeing these recent developments, fans get reminded of all those previous criticisms over Rybakina’s ex-coach.

A fan tweeted, “His influence has been clearly negative in her PR. No positive interactions with WTA, no socializing with her peers, rarely seen in fun videos and now he is about to ruin her career entirely. I don’t like where this is going. Sad!”

Just like most tennis fans, even Serena Williams’ former coach Rennae Stubbs has been very vocal about Stefano Vukov’s coaching style. She once said, “You guys know if you have listened to our podcast, I had my feelings and my thoughts when it came to her (Elena Rybakina’s) coach. I thought he was not a good element. When I’m playing a match, I don’t want to see my coach gesturing, looking all pissed off up there.” She further added, “Now, off the court, in a way he might be the greatest guy in the world to her, I don’t know. But when it comes to being her coach, I saw way too many things of him yelling at her in the gym, other players have said stuff to me. When she would win matches, he was giving her sh-t”

So, bringing back Stefano Vukov amid all these was a bit surprising for some. A fan tweeted, “If that guy was suspended is because something serious happened, why I don’t understand is why a top player as Ribakyna want this suspended guy on her team.”

Elena Rybakina last had a Grand Slam success at the 2022 Wimbledon Championships. She reached the final of the 2023 AO but was defeated by Aryna Sabalenka in the final. So, Rybakina will be keen to bring out her A-game in this year’s AO. However, after seeing all these developments, some of the fans looked a bit concerned about Elena Rybakina’s chances at the AO. “Hopefully this will not disrupt her preparation for the AO 25,” wrote a few. Do you think Elena Rybakina can do wonders at the 2025 AO?