First picture of Elena Rybakina with new coach Goran Ivanisevic as pair begin off-season training in Dubai
Elena Rybakina will start the 2025 season with a new coach after appointing Goran Ivanisevic as her new coach at the end of last year. The Croatian spent most of the past few years being the primary coach of Novak Djokovic, leading him to multiple Grand Slam trophies.
After Rybakina parted ways with her former coach Stefano Vukov after working together for 5 years, she opted for Ivanisevic, whom she believes will help her take the next step.
They're already working hard to achieve those goals as they were pictured in Dubai when a photo of her team, including Ivanisevic, was posted on social media. The team looked to be in rather good spirits, as this time of the year can be quite nice in Dubai.
The first time Ivanisevic could be seen on the sidelines coaching Rybakina should be at the World Tennis League in Abu Dhabi next week because that's an event she's going to participate in. It's a team-based exhibition event featuring lots of great players, including Rybakina, who has played in it a couple of times in the past. It's simply her standard way of preparing for the Australian Summer before heading Down Under.
Rybakina parting ways with Vukov
Much like her current coach Ivanisevic, her former coach Vukov is also Croatian, which is a connecting dot between them. The split with Vukov was followed closely by the media, which alluded to the situation being far more complicated than a simple split between a coach and player. There were rumors regarding the two, but Rybakina cleared up most of that, acknowledging that it was her simply splitting with her coach.
"I know that a lot of I guess rumors going on. But honestly we just part ways with Stefano. I think we had incredible results over five years. We achieved a lot. I started with him when I was 200. I think it's just now next chapter of my career. I want to make next step," Elena Rybakina said at the pre-tournament press conference of the WTA Finals in Riyadh in November.
They worked together for 5 years and while some were surprised by the split, plenty weren't which led to rumors that trouble was brewing for a while. Their relationship was under the spotlight as Vukov was spotted yelling at Rybakina a few times.
These instances were used by some in the media, notably Rennae Stubbs, acknowledging that something felt off in the whole thing which prompted Rybakina to defend their relationship back then. That was a year ago and now, one year later, Vukov is gone and Ivanisevic is the new man in charge.