"I thought he was not a good element": Rennae Stubbs lashes out at Elena Rybakina's former coach Stefano Vukov for negative demeanor

Former world number one Serena Williams' ex-coach Rennae Stubbs has once again highlighted the troubles of working with Stefano Vukov. The 37-year-old is a famous and relatively young tennis coach. He recently worked with the women’s world number four Elena Rybakina.

Their partnership ended just before the start of the 2024 US Open which bring a lot spotlight on the relationship between Rybakina and Vukov. Ex-coach of the former world number one Serena has been recently quoted in a report where she criticised the behaving of Vukov. The 53-year-old was of the opinion that the Rijeka-born star not a ‘good element for the current world number four. Stubbs also stated that she would not want her coach to gesture, looking pissed all the time.

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"You guys know, if you have listened to our podcast, I had my feelings and my thoughts when it came to her [Rybakina's] coach,” she said. “I thought he was not a good element. When I’m playing a match, I don’t want to see my coach gesturing, looking all pissed off up there. And there’s been some coaches of late that I’m like, 'Why do these players allow these coaches to look like this?' Because you need a positive influence around you when you’re looking up there. Now, off the court, in a way he might be the greatest guy in the world to her, I don’t know. But when it comes to being her coach, I saw way too many things of him yelling at her in the gym, other players have said stuff to me. When she would win matches, he was giving her sh*t.”

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Rybakina had an impressive season but has struggled with fitness concerns towards the later stages. She has played 50 matches in total and won 41 of them. She lifted three WTA titles this year. Her most recent appearance was in the US Open where she was forced to withdraw from the second-round.