Elena Rybakina is shooting herself in the foot ahead of Australian Open 2025 with very-avoidable coach drama

Elena Rybakina is known as one of the most soft-spoken tennis players around. She largely doesn't seek out more attention than she already has, and this has kept her away from any type of controversies.

That changed quite a bit in the early goings of 2024 when the Kazakh player was part of a controversy surrounding her coach, Stefanos Vukov. Quite a few tennis analysts pointed out Vukov's attitude while coaching Rybakina, which was found to be rather problematic. In 2023, former player and current tennis broadcaster, pundit, and coach Pam Shriver similarly expressed her views on X (formerly Twitter).

"As I watch Rybakina try to win her second major in 7 months, I hope she finds a coach who speaks and treats her with respect at ALL times and does not ever accept anything less," - she wrote.

At that time, Rybakina came out and defended her coach, essentially telling people to mind their own business. Even so, the chatter about some of his practices continued through 2024, with noted tennis analyst Rennae Stubbs calling into question the dynamic between the two on her podcast.

Then came the bombshell news of Elena Rybakina and Vukov parting ways, which was announced by the player herself at the 2024 US Open. Then there were reports from Russia by journalist Sofya Tartakova on the Tennis Bolshei YouTube channel indicating that Rybakina was not playing much, not because she was injured, but having "mental problems."

That was never confirmed either, and the whole situation looked rather bizarre. Still, what remained true was that Rybakina and Vukov were not working together. Lots of fans speculated on the nature of the split because it was abrupt, and neither spoke about it.

There were tons of rumors flying around, most unsubstantiated. Eventually, Elena Rybakina announced late in 2024 that she would be hiring the former coach of Novak Djokovic as her new coach. Goran Ivanisevic joined her team, and the coaching situation seemed to be clear.

Elena Rybakina made her comeback at the WTA Finals where she lost against Qinwen Zheng and Jasmine Paolini but also beat Aryna Sabalenka, which was overall a pretty decent showing. This upcoming season will be pivotal for Rybakina as she has not really been able to assert herself among the rise of Sabalenka and Gauff, with Swiatek still ahead of her in the pecking order.

The story kind of fell out of the spotlight after that, though it reemerged during the World Tennis League in Abu Dhabi recently, where Vukov was spotted watching Rybakina play. Eagle-eyed fans spotted him in the stands, and the news spread like wildfire on tennis social media spaces, with many fans finding the situation rather bizarre.

It has to be noted that throughout this saga, lots of tennis fans took a very negative stand against Vukov due to the numerous rumors of his behavior. Then came the most shocking development in this whole saga.

On January 1st, Elena Rybakina announced that Vukov would be returning to her coaching staff. That completely caught everybody off guard because nobody saw it coming, especially due to the split between them appearing somewhat complicated.

Rybakina’s comments after the split were very cold, and most people assumed that the split wasn’t the smoothest. That’s what made bringing him back look so strange in the whole matter, especially with the rumors.

Then came another twist in the whole saga with the WTA officially suspending Vukov from coaching on the WTA, with reports of a formal investigation into his behavior going on for quite a while.

That means that he won’t be able to coach her during the Australian Open as the WTA won’t issue him credentials, which would allow him to enter the premises. Neither Elena Rybakina nor Vukov spoke after the update, though one part of her team did.

“I am for the moment here” - Goran Ivanisevic still part of Elena Rybakina’s team

Goran Ivanisevic attends the UEFA EURO 2024 group stage match between Spain and Croatia at Olympiastadion - Source: Getty

Goran Ivanisevic joined Rybakina’s team with a seemingly clear idea of what he wanted to do with the player. He likely anticipated being the only coach for Elena Rybakina, but it seemed like she had other plans. The Croatian sat down with noted tennis journalist Ben Rothenberg recently to talk about the whole situation, though he remained rather coy.

“Listen, the investigation is still on, so we wait for WTA to finish, and then I can talk about everything. But until then... I spoke to Elena; I told her what I think.” - Ivanisevic to Bounces

What Ivanisevic did tell Rothenberg is that he hopes to stay working with Elena Rybakina, but ultimately he doesn’t know what’s going to happen. In fairness, that's all of us.

“I am, for the moment, here. What’s going to happen in a couple of days, I don’t know. But for the moment, I am here. Hopefully I will stay, and hopefully everything is going to be OK. But let’s take day by day.”

There is a chance that Vukov remains suspended, which would leave Elena Rybakina likely relying on Ivanisevic. If he gets reinstated, then we might get a situation where she has two dominant voices in her corner. The bottom line of all of this is simple: this is a distraction that she didn’t need. It impacted her level last year, and could likely impact her Australian Open this year.