Banned coach ‘never mistreated me’ insists former Wimbledon champion

The 2022 Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina has defended her former coach Stefano Vukov, saying that “he never mistreated me”, after it emerged last week that Vukov has been provisionally suspended by the WTA Tour.

According to a WTA spokesperson, Vukov is under investigation for an alleged breach of the tour’s Code of Conduct. A verdict is expected to be reached before the Australian Open, which starts in a week’s time, but in the meantime he is unable to access tournament practice courts and other backstage areas.

“I can only say, and I said it already before, that he never mistreated me or it was never anything like that,” Rybakina told BBC Sport on Saturday, after losing to world No 2 Iga Swiatek in the United Cup in Sydney.

Vukov was Rybakina’s coach for five years, starting when she was 19, until they split shortly before August’s US Open. But on Wednesday she posted an unexpected message on Instagram welcoming him back to the team.

The message did not specify what role Vukov would now be fulfilling, although those close to the situation say that she would like him to function as a manager. Rybakina appointed another former Wimbledon champion – Goran Ivanisevic – as her new coach late last year.

“I mean, I’m working with Goran,” Rybakina said on Saturday. “I’m happy the way we work now for the couple of weeks. As I also said, Stefano is rejoining the team because I know the person for six years, and there is a lot of things we can do outside of the court too.

“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. It’s active coaches, commentators. I don’t think that it’s fair.

“Yeah, but 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 [in the world] all the way what we did.

“You can [try to] 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.”

Rybakina’s complaints about comments from coaches and commentators are likely to be directed at Pam Shriver, the former Wimbledon doubles champion who posted a critical tweet on Wednesday in response to the announcement of Vukov’s return.

It is understood that Portia Archer, the new chief executive of the WTA, has been handling the Vukov situation personally. On Thursday, Vukov told The Athletic website that he had “definitely never abused anyone”.

Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.