Elena Rybakina is among the protagonists of these Australian Open 2023, even in spite of her. The Kazakh tennis player reached the semifinal of the Grand Slam tournament, the second of her career after Wimbledon: her outcome, however, was not so lucky, with the defeat suffered at the hands of Aryna Sabalenka.
The champion at the All England Club was also a protagonist off the pitch. The tennis player’s coach Stefano Vukov, He was at the center of the controversy, guilty of not supporting the Kazakh in the correct way. «As I watch Rybakina attempt to win her second Grand Slam in 7 months, I hope you find a coach who will speak to you and treat you with respect at all times and never accept less,» Pam Shriver tweeted.
Elena Rybakina herself wanted to respond to this accusation, with a post on Instagram.: «After a great Australian Open, I read disturbing comments on social media about the behavior of my coach Stefan Vukov. I want to clear up any misunderstandings.
Stefano believed in me for many years, before anyone else. We plan a strategy on how to achieve great things, things that are showing with my successes in the Grand Slams. He is a passionate trainer, with a lot of knowledge. Unlike the people who are making these comments, he knows me deeply as a tennis player and as a person.
Anyone who knows me knows that I would never accept a coach who didn’t respect me and all my hard work. I may seem calm on the pitch and in general, but inside I am a competitive athlete who wants to achieve big goals and Stefano has helped me in a fantastic way.
So please ignore any fake news.»
Tursunov also defends Vukic
She is not the only one who defended the coach: «Pam, I respected you as an entity in tennis, but lately I have seen you write a lot of questionable things.
This has to top it off,» wrote Tursunov, Belinda Bencic’s current coach, who later added: «In your quest to put down random people in tennis for bizarre reasons, you openly and publicly insulted a man who is solely responsible for you. He also knows who Elena Rybakina is.»
