Elena Rybakina's coach, Stefano Vukov, lauded his player after her Wimbledon triumph and also gave an insight into what it is like to work with the Kazakhstani.
Rybakina hired Vukov as her coach in February 2019 to replace Andrei Chosnokov as her first traveling coach. At that stage of her career, she was competing in ITF events and had never qualified for a Grand Slam main draw.
The 23-year-old made progress after appointing Vukov before her special run at Wimbledon. A few months after the Croatian coach joined her team at the Bucharest Open, she won her first title.
Rybakina reached seven more finals in the following three years, winning one of these at the Hobart International. Despite those improvements, she was still unknown to the broader public during that period.
That all changed at this year's Wimbledon Championships. Rybakina defeated the crowd favorite Ons Jabeur 3-6, 6-2, 6-2 to secure the title at SW19 after a memorable run that included a semifinal victory against the 2019 champion Simona Halep.
Vukov admitted he was not expecting Rybakina to win the title at Wimbledon this year. The Croatian outlined how he and others in the Kazakhstani's team told her to keep pushing, eventually leading to her incredible success.
I did not expect that to happen. It's exciting. I still haven't wrapped my head around what's going on...especially in the last couple of matches. We told her to keep going; keep pushing, and it's unbelievable for her. We started working together four years ago, playing ITF events...it's amazing for her as a player and me as a coach.
Rybakina's coach also said her calm demeanor on the court is how she acts off the court. Vukov acknowledged that personality cannot be changed while also calling her unbelievable to work with.
She's super calm as a personality. You can't change that much; that's who she is. She can be a bit more fiery, yes, to win more the moments of the match rather than stopping to activate a bit more, It's the way she is, and she's an unbelievable person to work with.
0 Comments