Elena Rybakina 'calmed down' after comeback of controversial coach Stefano Vukov

Thursday, 11 December 2025 at 17:55

byErik Virostko

Elena Rybakina played some of her best tennis this season after her controversial coach, Stefano Vukov, was allowed to officially return to her team.

Rybakina's coach, Vukov, was banned by the WTA earlier this season. The ban came into effect in January, at the start of the season, and lasted until August, when the WTA lifted it and allowed the 38-year-old Croatian to return to the team of the former Wimbledon champion.

Rybakina struggled a lot in the first months of the season. She lost in the fourth round of the Australian Open and won her first title at the end of May in Strasbourg. She then lost in the fourth round of Roland Garros and the third round of Wimbledon, a tournament she won in 2022.

However, after Vukov returned to the Kazakhstani's team, her performance significantly improved. Rybakina won the Ningbo Open and reached the semi-finals of the Japan Open in Tokyo before withdrawing from the event. She withdrew because she had collected enough points to secure her participation at the WTA Finals.

Rybakina then won the WTA Finals without losing a match, so she ended her season on an 11-match winning streak. The impact of Vukov's return to her team was obvious, and former WTA doubles world No. 1 and Olympic gold medalist Elena Vesnina noticed it as well.

Vesnina talked about Rybakina and her coach in a recent interview with Russian publication Championat, saying that Vukov's return clearly helped the WTA Finals champion to play better.

"Even though many were skeptical about her [Elena Rybakina's] reunion with her coach, I saw Stefano Vukov work and heard the tips he gave her. He knows her very well and tells her the right things."

"I think Lena has calmed down because she's been reunited with someone who knows her very well, knows her strengths and weaknesses, and understands how to, so to speak, awaken her."

"Because I think Lena, due to her somewhat phlegmatic temperament, can sometimes seem to retreat into herself and reflect. And Stefano Vukov knows how to bring her back to the right state with his own methods."

Vesnina also praised Rybakina for winning the WTA Finals. According to the 39-year-old former Russian player, it seemed like Rybakina approached the tournament as a local event rather than one of the biggest tournaments in the world, considering how calm she appeared to be. At the end of the day, she ended up winning the largest prize money pot in the sport's history.

"It was simply amazing how calmly Lena navigated this tournament. As if it were, you know, some ordinary tournament, somewhere around here at Spartak. But she also won Wimbledon. That's the kind of temperament and character she has. So it's great that Lena was able to pull herself together and return to the top of the WTA rankings."