Elena Rybakina admits the turbulent coaching situation and WTA's investigation into Stefano Vukov contributed heavily to her early-season struggles, but was glad that ultimately everything fell into the right place.
If you can recall, Rybakina hired Goran Ivanisevic for 2025. A few days into the 2025 season, the Kazakh announced that Vukov was returning to her team. That didn't make Ivanisevic happy at all and it was instantly rumored that the Croatian would leave her after the Australian Open. Then, the WTA came out with a statement confirming that there had been an ongoing investigation into Vukov for allegedly abusing the 26-year-old.
After the Australian Open, Ivanisevic left Rybakina's team and Vukov received a one-year ban. The 2022 Wimbledon champion didn't hide her unhappiness with the WTA decision, but had to react and hired Davide Sanguinetti.
"Before the start of the season, the preparation was different than before. Plus, there were changes in the team. It was also time to get used to the person, to understand. There were some different moments," the world No. 5 told TengriNews.
Rybakina: It all came together at the end of the year
In August, Vukov officially returned to Rybakina's team after he successfully appealed the WTA's ban. That extremely positively impacted the Kazakh's game, who won Ningbo and clinched the last WTA Finals ticket, before impressively going 5-0 in Riyadh to win the season-ending tournament for the first time. She also returned to the top-10 and finished the year ranked at No. 5 in the world.
"Ultimately, after playing a lot of matches, we managed to find our rhythm and work on it, even though there were so many tournaments. I'm really happy that my season turned out so well. This happened even though, by the end, I was already thinking about how to rest. You're tired, but you're with the team. I'm also very grateful to them we didn't have much time. Playing tournaments, we were able to improve some things in my game. And it all came together at the end of the season," Rybakina said.
