Davide Sanguinetti has confirmed Elena Rybakina’s plan is to move forward with two coaches and that he gladly accepted to work alongside Stefano Vukov.
After the Kazakh’s plans to return Vukov to her team were revealed just before the Australian Open, early rumors indicated that Goran Ivanisevic was “blindsided” by the move.
And only a day after the world No. 5 exited the Australian Open in the round-of-16, Ivanisevic left the 25-year-old’s team.
When Rybakina arrived in Abu Dhabi last week, she was spotted on the practice court with 1998 Wimbledon quarterfinalist Sanguinetti.
In their first tournament together, the Kazakh reached the Abu Dhabi semifinal before losing to Belinda Bencic in three sets.
Considering how collaboration with Ivanisevic wanted, some naturally wanted to know what would Sanguinetti do if the WTA’s investigation cleared Vukov and the 37-year-old was allowed to officially coach on the Tour again.
“Vukov and Elena are close, he will always be there,” the Italian coach told La Gazzetta dello Sport.
“Stefano and I talk a lot, we are on the same wavelength. It’s not a problem to have two coaches, it’s almost a trend now.”
Rybakina repeated her frustrations with the WTA
Only when the Kazakh decided to bring back Vukov to her team, the WTA officially confirmed that they were investigating the Croatian coach over a possible breach of their conduct policy.
Since then, the 2022 Wimbledon champion has made it clear that she wasn’t the one who filed a complaint and also insisted that those allegations are simply not true.
Elena Rybakina© Australian Open/YouTube
And with that being said, she isn’t hiding that she wants Vukov to be allowed to get his credentials back and be able to join her on the practice court and sit in her box.
“I don’t know much. It’s a situation I’m not happy with. But it is what it is but for now I don’t know much,” the Kazakh said a couple of days ago.
“Safeguarding is important but the case with what happened with us I don’t think it was handled well.”
Tennis World USA