Ex-Slam champ details why there’s ‘more’ to shock Elena Rybakina-Stefano Vukov split

Kim Clijsters thinks there is definitely more to the Elena Rybakina and Stefano Vukov shock split because the two arrived together at the US Open and were preparing for the tournament when the stunning news dropped.

In case you forgot, it was three days before the start of the final Grand Slam of the season that the Kazakh tennis star announced that she was ending her five-year partnership with the Croatian. In her message, the 25-year-old didn’t reveal much as she kept it short by just sharing the news.

But then, the real drama started happening. After winning her opening match in New York, the 2022 Wimbledon champion provided very blunt answers to a couple of Vukov-related questions. Two days later, the report came out that the Croatian was removed from the official list of WTA coaches – something that doesn’t happen just because you get fired by a player. And then, Rybakina abruptly withdrew from her US Open second-round match and just cited “injuries” as the cause.

The 25-year-old has since also pulled out of this week’s WTA 500 tournament in Seoul.

“I think there’s definitely – more will come out. He was at the Open. He had a credential. He was there. It’s like weird… It’s all a guess to everybody besides some people who are part of the organization. I think we’ll find out more in the future about it. But at the moment, I don’t think – it’s not going to be anything good,” Clijsters said on the Served with Andy Roddick podcast.

2003 US Open champion Andy Roddick agreed with Clijsters that there was probably more to the story but refused to get into any kind of speculation.

“Her coach got banned from – there’s a coaching list of available coaches and they kicked him off. You don’t get kicked off for nothing. There’s obviously more to the story but we can’t have an opinion on something you don’t know anything about,” the American former world No. 1 said.

Rybakina’s secretive responses asked about the Vukov split

Since the Croatian was her long-time coach and the one who guided her to becoming a Grand Slam champion and a top player, the reporters wanted to know if something felt differently without him in the team.

“Well, of course, it is different. We worked for five years, but still, I got support from Yuri Shchukin and same, we talked about the tactic and everything, so I was prepared for the match,” Rybakina said following her first-round win in New York over Destanee Aiava.

When asked to reveal some details about the split, she refused: “Well, I don’t want to talk about it too much, but yeah, that was our decision, to split.”

Asked about the prospect of having someone else, the Kazakh said: “I will let you know, guys, if my coaching situation is going to change, so…