MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) 鈥� Elena Rybakina, , said Saturday she disagrees with the WTA Tour's decision to provisionally suspend her longtime coach, Stefano Vukov, and reiterated that she never made a complaint about him.
鈥淚 always said that he never mistreated me,鈥� Rybakina said at a news conference the day before the start of the , where she was the runner-up to Aryna Sabalenka two years ago.
Rybakina, who is seeded No. 6 in Melbourne, characterized the whole thing as 鈥渄efinitely not the ideal situation鈥� as she prepares to compete in the year's first Grand Slam tournament, and said she objected to comments made by 鈥渟ome coaches,鈥� mentioning Pam Shriver by name.
Rybakina announced right before last year's U.S. Open that she no longer was working with Vukov, then said ahead of this season that her new coach would be Goran Ivanisevic. He won Wimbledon in 2001 as a player and then was Novak Djokovic's coach for 12 major titles.
But Rybakina said this month that Vukov would be rejoining her team. The WTA then said Vukov 鈥渋s currently under a provisional suspension pending an independent investigation into a potential breach of the WTA code of conduct.鈥�
The WTA added that 鈥淰ukov is not eligible to obtain a WTA credential at this time," which would prevent him from going into player-only areas at tournaments such as practice courts or training areas.
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AP tennis:
The Associated Press
