Donna Vekic confirms the locker room is absolutely discussing the Elena Rybakina and Stefano Vukov partnership but the Croatian refused to go into details as she will for now leave it to the WTA to handle it.
As you probably know, the Kazakh announced that the 37-year-old coach was returning to her team five months after they ended their five-year collaboration in mysterious circumstances.
But shortly after the 25-year-old revealed the news, a WTA source confirmed that Vukov was banned from coaching on the Tour and that there was an ongoing investigation about him regarding a possible breach of their conduct.
When asked about it at the Australian Open, Rybakina insisted that the Croatian coach “never mistreated me” and also confirmed that she never complained about the 37-year-old but that someone else made a complaint about his behavior.
“It’s being talked about, of course. Of course. It’s a very sensitive topic, I wouldn’t want to interfere too much. The WTA is still investigating, so we will know their decision soon. So we’ll see (what happens),” Vekic told Sport Klub.
Vekic shared her mentor’s post about Rybakina and Vukov, the Kazakh responded
1976 US Open finalist Pam Shriver has been one of the biggest critics of the 37-year-old coach and his behavior.
So when the Kazakh announced the reunion, the former American tennis star wasn’t happy about it.
“It’s time for our entire sport to finally stand up to known abuse and cult like manipulations of players. This is a very sad situation and my prayers are with ER.
And Vekic shared this X post.
Pam Shriver X post© X
Meanwhile, Rybakina called out Shriver in her pre-tournament press conference at the Australian Open, saying that the 62-year-old doesn’t know her at all and that she shouldn’t be making any comments.
“Well, I get that one of coaches… But I’m sure I don’t know her personally. She never came to me, never talked with me… Since she doesn’t know me, I don’t know her, I don’t think it’s fair to make any comments like that, especially being an active coach, being commentator, journalist, so on,” the world No. 6 said.
The reports indicate that the WTA’s investigation into Vukov could be over every day.
Tennis World USA