Ivanisevic on His Brief Collaboration with Rybakina: "Things Happened Off the Court That I Couldn’t Control"

Adrien Guyot

le 26/03/2025 à 11h09

2 min to read

Ivanisevic Rybakina

At the start of the 2025 season, Goran Ivanisevic, the former coach of Novak Djokovic, became Elena Rybakina’s coach. The Kazakh player, who had a difficult previous season marked by various physical issues that forced her to withdraw from many tournaments, wanted to start fresh on the best possible note.

After appearing at the United Cup, Rybakina, the world No. 8, reached the round of 16 at the Australian Open before being eliminated in three sets by Madison Keys, the eventual champion in Melbourne. However, after just a few weeks of collaboration, Ivanisevic ended his coaching role with Rybakina.

The reason? The 2022 Wimbledon champion had decided to bring Stefano Vukov, her coach from 2019 to 2024 who guided her to the title in London three years ago, back into her team.

This decision did not sit well with Ivanisevic, especially since Vukov had been suspended for a year by the WTA for mistreating Rybakina over several months—insulting her repeatedly, pushing her physically far beyond her limits, and even harassing her after their collaboration ended following the 2024 US Open, where Rybakina withdrew before her second-round match.

As tensions rose, Ivanisevic chose to step away and announced the news himself on Instagram. In recent hours, the 2001 Wimbledon winner reflected on his experience with Rybakina, stating that stopping early was the best way to prevent the situation from worsening.

"Even before becoming her coach, I considered her the best player in the world—at least, that’s my opinion. She plays so simply, and I’ve always loved that about her.

Unfortunately, things happened off the court that I couldn’t control. I didn’t want to be part of that, so that’s why I decided the best thing to do at that moment was to stop.

I won’t go into more details, but what I can say is that it was a bit of a strange, even sad, story. In any case, I wish her all the best for the rest of her career," he told Talking Tennis.