Ever since her split from her coach, Elena Rybakina has become the talk of the town. Concerns have been raised after her second-round elimination at the US Open and constant withdrawals from the China Open and Korea Open. However, no one knows what’s going on with her. Amidst multiple opinions, Serena Williams‘ ex-coach, Rennae Stubbs joined the debate and expressed her thoughts.

In her podcast, the Rennae Stubbs show, dated 2nd of October, she talked about how everything has shaped out with the Kazakh player. She suggested that when she’s at her best, there’s hardly anyone better than her. With a 23/7 W/L record on clay, 12/2 on clay courts, and 6/2 on grass, the numbers say for themselves. She further added that having her on the tour is good for tennis.

However, when the topic shifted to her coach, she did not seem much happy about him. Apparently, following Rybakina’s split from her coach, Stefano Vukov has been banned from the WTA tour.

“I had my feelings and my thoughts when it came to her coach. I thought he was not a good but what’s the word element in her yes, good word, yeah. I thought, you know, when she went, listen, when I’m playing a match, I don’t want to see my coach gesture in looking all pissed off up there. And there’s been some coaches of late that I’m like, why do these players allow these coaches to look like this? Because you need positive you need a positive influence around you when you’re looking up there 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,” said Stubbs in her podcast.

Serena Williams’ coach is not alone in this. Even the likes of Andy Roddick have suggested that there is something bad going to happen but he’s not sure. “There’s like an impending feeling of, like, bad news coming, or, like the bad, like a bad story coming. And I would love to be wrong; this is purely conjecture. This is pure just wondering out loud; I don’t know. What I do know is that she is elite when she is ready, happy, focused, and playing,” said Roddick.

Amidst all the concerns, Elena Rybakina, in an interview also opened up about the struggles that she has to go through every day being a professional player.

Elena Rybakina talks about the downsides of being a professional player

Tennis, while looking glamorous from the outside might not be the same as within. Elena Ryabkina, in an exclusive interview, opened up about the same. Having played around 13 events already this year, she won the Stuttgart Open, the Abu Dhabi Open, and the Brisbane International. However, she opened up about the dark sides of the game. Rybakina revealed that keeping up with expectations can be difficult.

“It’s not as easy as it looks from the outside. There are days when the pressure is overwhelming, and it becomes hard to keep up with the expectations,” she admitted. “Everyone sees the success and the wins, but no one knows the emotional toll it takes to stay at the top.”

She also added that tennis is such a lonely sport and being away from family and friends for a long time can be daunting for her. Also, having good company matters the most as she can get through all the negative emotions whilst playing her tennis.

Thus, Elena Rybakina, who is struggling to find her way back to professional tennis has raised a lot of concerns from pro players and even enthusiasts. It will be exciting to see her come back and how she performs. What are your thoughts on this? Do let us know in the comments below!