Goran Ivanisevic names two aspects of Elena Rybakina's game he wants to improve as first official match completed
WTA
Goran Ivanisevic has become Elena Rybakina's coach in full for the first time with the new duo working together at the United Cup on Friday as Kazakhstan pulled off a 2-1 win anchored by their leading light.
There are high expectations for the new duo in 2025 with Ivanisevic the coach for six years of Novak Djokovic anchoring him to some of his finest successes before they felt their time had ran its course earlier this year.
As a result, Ivanisevic was highly sought after. But decided for the first time to start his WTA coaching career. Rybakina has not really had any other coaching setup during her rise aside from Stefano Vukov.
Albeit Vukov was heavily criticised for the way he is perceived to have treated Rybakina. Details filtered out about how the duo worked together albeit Rybakina sought to quell those saying she only had positives surrounding her ex-coach. But Ivanisevic is already working on two main facets of the game with Rybakina that he will hope will pay dividends.
“It's my first official WTA match. We worked a couple weeks in Dubai. A little bit on the serve. Trying to push her to come to the net more. She has a big game and can finish the point much earlier than she was usually doing. It's a process. She needs to put in her head that she can play more aggressively, come to the net, and finish some points with the volleys," said Ivanisevic.
While she won't be smashing racquets like her coach, the goal is for her to show more emotion and give herself that extra boost on the court as well as attempting to finsih points earlier too like alluded to.
"Definitely not going to see her breaking racquets but hopefully she does show more emotion. She's a very different person and very calm. But l've been trying to put some emotion and I think it's going to help her game.”
Goran Ivanisevic says he’s been working with Elena Rybakina on finishing more points at the net and showing a bit more emotion on court:
— The Tennis Letter (@TheTennisLetter) December 27, 2024
Goran: “It's my first official WTA match. We worked a couple weeks in Dubai. A little bit on the serve. Trying to push her to come to the net… pic.twitter.com/fcp8jQ7qlT
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