The Athletic has revealed more details about the WTA’s findings in the Stefano Vukov investigation as according to the report, even the Kazakh’s mother once intervened and urged the Croatian coach not to make her daughter cry.
While the WTA declined to go public with what they found, several details regarding their investigations surfaced.
Last week, it was confirmed that verbal abuse was involved and that the 37-year-old received a one-year ban from coaching on the Tour.
Now, The Athletic is revealing that Rybakina’s mother once wrote an e-mail to Vukov, in which she requested him to treat her daughter with more respect – the WTA used that as evidence in their investigation.
Also, it was said that the Croatian coach bombarded the Kazakh with “over 100 calls and numerous text messages” after they abruptly split at the US Open, and he even arrived to the hotel and refused to leave until security intervened.
The report also said that the 25-year-old’s family and other team members were the ones who convinced the world No. 7 to end her partnership with the 37-year-old.
Rybakina remains firm in her defense of Vukov
Since announcing the return of the Croatian coach to her team, the 2022 Wimbledon champion has been publicly claiming that she was “never mistreated.”
“Of course I’m not really happy with the situation. I’m not happy with the comments which I see, especially from the people who are on the tour,” the 25-year-old said in Melbourne.
“It’s active coaches, commentators. I don’t think that it’s fair.
“The only thing I can say is, like, he never mistreated me. I have respect to him for everything he did from the very beginning when I was 200 all the way what we did.
“You can name me other coaches who had the same success with players who have been 200 and then winning Grand Slam and being in the top.”
Tennis World USA