Elena Rybakina announces that ex-coach Stefano Vukov will re-join her team for 2025 season

Elena Rybakina made waves around the tennis world in the early hours of the New Year when she announced Thursday Down Under (Wednesday in the rest of the world) that her polarizing former coach, Stefano Vukov, will re-join her team for 2025.

The 2022 Wimbledon champion made the announcement in a post to her Instagram story, saying that she was "excited" for Vukov to re-join her team for the upcoming tennis season, which has already been underway for nearly a week. It confirmed a report from Russian tennis media personality Sofya Tartakova from two days prior, where she wrote that Vukov would travel to Melbourne on Jan. 4 to support Rybakina at the Australian Open.

Rybakina and Vukov parted ways last summer ahead of the US Open after a five-year working relationship, which bore fruit including her first Grand Slam singles title, another runner-up finish at the 2023 Australian Open, and a career-high ranking of world No. 3. But the Croat's intense coaching style, where he frequently could be heard shouting incessantly at Rybakina from his place in the stands, had previously attracted criticism from fans and fellow coaches, including Hall of Famer Pam Shriver, who currently is part of the team around Olympic silver medalist Donna Vekic.

Rybakina had previously vociferously defended Vukov against such criticisms, including a lengthy social media post following her run to the Melbourne final two years ago where his behavior first went viral, but was reticent to discuss the split in detail in the waning months of last season. At the year-end WTA Finals in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, she announced that 2001 Wimbledon champion Goran Ivanisevic, Novak Djokovic's former coach, would be working with her going forward.

Read more: Rybakina hits the practice court with new coach Goran Ivanisevic in Dubai

Shriver, a 22-time Grand Slam doubles champion who now also commentates, had more to say in the aftermath of the word No. 6's announcement, calling her impeding reunion with Vukov "very sad." The American has been a vocal advocate for stronger safeguarding measures in tennis to prevent abusive and improper relationships, particularly in light of her 2022 reveal that she and her longtime coach, the late Don Candy, engaged in an inappropriate relationship for seven years beginning when she was 17.

"It’s time for our entire sport to finally stand up to known abuse and cult like manipulations of players," Shriver wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

Rybakina has had a strong start to her season representing Kazakhstan for the first time in the mixed-gender United Cup. In three ties so far for her country, she's posted a 4-0 match record, and has led the team to the semifinals.