“I’d be surprised if we see Goran at AO,” continued Vandeweghe, speaking to The Athletic’s reporting that Ivanisevic was “blindsided” by the news that Rybakina planned to re-hire Vukov. “I think this kind of movement going on the coaching carousel that is Elena Rybakina’s team, I wouldn’t want to be the new coach that’s supposed to be the new coach for Elena Rybakina and bringing in an old voice again. That means you don’t trust me enough to make you better, put you in that next step forward, which is what Elena Rybakina was looking for.”
A former Wimbledon champion, Rybakina has enjoyed an unbeaten start to the year at United Cup, leading Kazakhstan into the semifinals, but is playing her first match since the news broke on Saturday against rival and former world No. 1 Iga Swiatek.
“It’s never easy, especially when you’ve had a long relationship with someone, to be able to draw boundaries if those boundaries need to be drawn,” echoed fellow Tennis Channel Live analyst Prakash Amritraj. “Rybakina has this beautiful light about her; we don’t want to see her down, we don’t want to see her dim. Hopefully, she can make the healthiest decision for herself, but there’s certainly miscommunication and contradiction in what seems to be going on.”
Rybakina is yet to comment on the matter since announcing that Vukov would be in Melbourne to “support” her during the Australian Open next week.
