From rollercoaster to soap opera: Elena Rybakina's coaching woes leave her free-spirited playing style hanging

Two years ago, during the course of her title run at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, I asked Elena Rybakina how she enjoyed herself away from tennis. Her answer: riding rollercoasters. When I asked if she screamed on them, Rybakina countered: “I laugh.” Indeed, Rybakina’s subdued persona meshed well with her free-swinging playing style.

Over the course of 2024, though, injuries and illnesses forced Rybakina to withdraw from several WTA Tour tournaments. Following Wimbledon, she only played six matches. Coaching woes have also entered the picture. In December, Rybakina announced that she had parted ways with her longstanding coach, Stefano Vukov, and would be working with Goran Ivanisevic.

Then matters got complicated when she decided to let Vukov come to Australia – only to learn that he was being investigated for a breach of the WTA Tour’s Code of Conduct and had been provisionally suspended.

“I always said that he never mistreated me,” Rybakina said prior to his year’s Australian Open. During that same press conference, Rybakina added that, “As I said, I'm not happy with the whole situation, especially when still some coaches are making some comments, and the people who are not so close to the tennis world, they just see the comments and then they're picking it up, make even more show out of this. I don't think it's fair, too.”

A vexed Ivanisevic nearly stopped working with Rybakina in early January. But he agreed to work with her during the Australian Open. Soon after Rybakina’s three-set round of 16 loss to Madison Keys, the two parted ways. At this stage, Rybakina’s world is less amusement park, more soap opera.