Coco Gauff Reacts To Ban Of Elena Rybakina's Controversial Coach Vukov
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Coco Gauff reacted to the news that Elena Rybakina's coach, Stefano Vukov, was banned by the WTA after their investigation into his behavior.
Vukov was officially banned by the WTA on February 12th, 2025. At that time, the 2025 Qatar Open in Doha was already in full swing, so most of the players didn't get a chance to react to the news.
The Croatian coach was banned because of inappropriate behavior towards his player. Rybakina said she wasn't happy about the ban. She wanted Vukov to remain part of her team.
Players around the WTA Tour got a chance to react to the news ahead of the 2025 Dubai Championships. Although almost none of them wanted to talk about it themselves, they were asked about their thought.
Gauff is one of the youngest players on the WTA Tour. In fact, she's the highest-ranked player under 23 years of age and one of only six players under 21 in the Top 100.
Still, she isn't afraid to speak about challenging topics. Now, speaking to AFP, Gauff was asked about the suspension of Rybakina's coach. She shared her opinion, saying that she believes that safeguarding is important, as sometimes, victims don't even have to know that they are victims.
"From my understanding, I know she doesn't like the decision. I know WTA also has the right to protect her. Overall, I think it's nice that the WTA is making sure that they're out there to protect players."
"I definitely think that that's important in our sport because a lot of times if you look, sometimes victims don't even know they are a victim. In this sport, it's happened so many times. A lot of times you see former players speaking out years after their career ended how they were treated."
Gauff wasn't the only player asked about the topic. Her compatriot and former doubles partner, Jessica Pegula, spoke about Vukov's suspension as well.
Pegula, too, is one of the players who are not afraid to say what they think and speak about challenging topics. She is one of the players on the WTA Player Council, and according to Pegula, not only the safeguarding is important, but also the privacy of the case.
"You're mentally travelling every single week. You're with a lot of different people. A lot of times your family can't come with you. When you start doing that at ages 13, 14, 15, it can go sideways fast. I think we've learned that from a lot of the cases back in the day."
"I think when it comes to things like that, privacy I think is really a priority. I know if I had something similar, I don't think I would want anyone airing my dirty laundry of maybe the incident or what happened or the people that were involved."
