"I did not want to be a part of that story" - Elena Rybakina's former coach Goran Ivanisevic reveals honest opinions on former Wimbledon champion

Elena Rybakina was praised by her old coach Goran Ivanisevic, with the Croatian stating that she should be winning more Grand Slams in the future. The 26-year-old can only boast one Grand Slam, which she won at Wimbledon in 2022.

As the 16th seed for the competition, she defeated 2019 winner and former world number one Simona Halep in the semi-finals in straight sets before coming back from a set down to upset Ons Jabeur and to claim her maiden Grand Slam triumph.

She has only made one final since, where she was defeated in Melbourne to Aryna Sabalenka after she took the first set. In last year's Wimbledon, she entered the quarter-finals as the huge favourite but was dispossessed in the semis by Barbora Krejickova, who went on to taste glory in the final. Since then, she has failed to make it past the fourth round in a disappointing upturn in form from the former world number three.

Ivanisevic has had a successful coaching career, aiding the likes of Marin Cilic and Milos Raonic before enduring a five-year stint with Novak Djokovic, in which they collected 12 Grand Slams before splitting in 2024.

He moved onto Rybakina at the end of 2024, but the stint only lasted a few competition after the Kazakh revealed she wanted to join-up with her former coach Stefano Vukov. The Croation had been investigated by the WTA and originally faced with a provisional suspension after alleged verbal abuse had risen to the surface. Rybakina had not played in many tournaments beforehand and was also dealing with physical and health issues.

Despite all of this, Vukov has officially returned to Rybakina's side, in a decision that has a lot of onlookers beamused. One of them was Ivanisevic, who refused to elaborate further on the situation.

Speaking on a podcast with former Croatian footballer and manager Slavan Bilic, he said: “It was a bit strange. I won’t talk much about it, but I can say that it’s a bit of a sad and strange story. I consider her, even before I became her coach, at least for me, to be the best tennis player in the world. She plays the most beautifully, she plays the simplest, and I really enjoyed it.

“Unfortunately, some things happened off the court that I couldn’t control and I didn’t want to be a part of that and part of that story and then I decided that it was best to quit. I wish her all the best in her career.”

Former Russian tennis star Anna Chakvetadze revealed what Ivanisevic told her off-camera, with her former-coach praising her but at the same time confused and questioning how she has not won more. “When we interviewed Goran Ivanisevic, he said off-camera, ‘I don’t understand, she (Rybakina) has such an amazing game, she should be winning more tournaments on grass, not one Wimbledon but three to four at least.”

Rybakina will be hoping this will be a fresh start in her career as she looks for glory in the states. She is currently competing in Cincinnati, with a quarter-final tie against world number one Aryna Sabalenka coming up shortly. She defeated number six in the world, Madison Keys, the round before to set up a repeat of the 2023 Australian Open final, as she aims for her third Masters 1000 title and first since 2023.Following from this, she turns her attention to Flushing Meadows as she looks for her second Grand Slam title, but firstly she will partner Amercian number one Taylor Fritz in the revamped mixed doubles event being held from the 19th-20th August.