'Stop Blaming Players': Rybakina's Coach Slams WTA After Bye Fiasco

Tuesday, 26 September 2023 at 09:02

Updated at Monday, 04 August 2025 at 17:28

byZachary Wimer

Elena Rybakina's coach, Stefano Vukov, slammed the WTA after her withdrawal from the Japan Open in Tokyo.

Vukov was in hot water earlier this year because of how he allegedly treated Rybakina as a coach. When those accusations came, the Kazakhstani player defended her coach, and now, it was Vukov who came to his player's defense after the most recent incident.

Rybakina recently blasted the WTA for changing rules days before an event. The rule in question was that she was stripped of her bye in favour of performance byes for some other players at the WTA 500 event in Tokyo.

She wasn't happy with it and spoke her mind, but also withdrew from the event after that, creating even more confusion. Her coach has now spoken out on the situation on Instagram and slammed the WTA.

"Just to make things clear, there is no explanation of what a performance bye is. What does this mean? Do we add byes to help performing players? Or do we take away ranking earned byes? And isn't ranking itself a sign of performance?"

"Last year we came from a final in Europe and played in Japan 2 days later and performance byes no where to be found. The issue is always the same lack of communication. This will also apply from Tokyo 500 to Beijing 1000 next week. 4 performance byes will be awarded."

Vukov called out the WTA, saying that the system simply doesn't work. He called on the organization to show more transparency.

"Most players have already qualified for the final 8, so for what reason should they even compete before Cancun. The reason is that most tournaments are mandatory, and fines are given out to players if you don't compete in them."

"Players always pay the consequences. The system doesn't work. The marketing is terrible as you can all see Elena qualified weeks ago, and just yesterday, WTA decided to post something. We need transparency. All players need to understand what is going on. Stop blaming players for mistakes made by the system itself."