Elena Rybakina’s former coach Stefano Vukov has been suspended pending a WTA investigation

Issues have been raised over the previous few seasons about Vukov’s conduct in direction of Rybakina.

The best way she speaks to herself – each on and off the court docket at tournaments – has come beneath scrutiny, though it’s not identified precisely which a part of the WTA Code of Conduct she is alleged to have breached.

On Thursday, he informed The Athletic – which first reported on his suspension – that he had “by no means abused anybody”.

Pam Shriver, the previous two-time Grand Slam champion who coaches Wimbledon semifinalist Donna Vekic, has been some of the vocal critics of Vukov’s conduct.

Throughout Rybakina’s run to the 2023 Australian Open remaining, Shriver urged the participant to discover a coach who “talks and treats her with respect always”.

In response, Rybakina disputed the proposals, outdoors Vukov crossed the suitable boundaries, calling it “disturbing information” and “faux information”.

When Rybakina introduced that she had rehired Vukov, Shriver took to social media, outdoors calling for “the complete sport to lastly stand as much as the identified abuse and manipulation of gamers as a cult”.

Vukov started coaching Rybakina at a younger age, making her probably the greatest gamers on the WTA Tour.

The connection ended earlier than final 12 months’s US Open and he appointed Goran Ivanisevic as his new coach.

It isn’t clear that his intention to deliver Vukov again to Ivanisevic, who was the Wimbledon champion in 2001 and who coached Novak Djokovic for a few years.

Ivanisevic’s representatives have confirmed to BBC Sport that he’s working with Rybakina on a trial, which can be reviewed on the finish of the Australian Open.