Natalia Zabiiako, partner of Daria Kasatkina, has explained why the player will not consider training with Russian coach Dmitry Tursunov. 

Former ATP player Tursunov has coached some big names on the WTA since retiring prematurely in 2017 due to injury. Most notably, the 40-year-old worked with world No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka earlier in her career, before they parted ways in 2019.

The former world No. 20 also coached Anett Kontaveit from the summer of 2021 to June 2022. However, whilst he helped the Estonian achieve her highest place in the WTA singles ranking of No. 2 last year, the 27-year-old has since been forced to retire early from the sport due to a painful back injury, which many have attributed to Tursunov's coaching methods.

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Zabiiako condemns Tursunov's methods

In a response to a YouTube comment, Kasatkina's girlfriend Zabiiako, who is herself a world bronze medalist in figure skating, removed any notion that the Russian No. 1 would go to train with Tursunov.

In reference to his coaching methods, which some have deemed effective in the sense that they achieve instant results, Zabiiako wrote:

"So effective that after several months of working with him, everyone gets injured or ends up [injured]. And yes, for more than a year, at best, he does not work with anyone. I think Anette is extremely 'thankful' to him."

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Zabiiako's comment then got a bit more personal, as she made her thoughts on Tursunov as a person very clear:

"Oh yeah, and he's a sh*t man," she added.

Tursunov also trained Belinda Bencic for six months until April 2023. The Swiss player missed two months mid-season due to a hip injury, which has been linked to the coach.

He also briefly worked with young tennis star Emma Raducanu, but this was short-lived as the pair could not work out a suitable compromise in order to work well together.