Novak Djokovic's ex-coach Goran Ivanisevic will love working with Elena Rybakina, who "isn't demonstrative" like the Serb, believes Rennae Stubbs
Serena Williams' ex-coach Rennae Stubbs has spoken up about Elena Rybakina appointing Goran Ivanisevic as her coach. Rybakina parted with Stefano Vukov earlier this year and will start working with Ivanisevic at the beginning of the 2025 season.
Rybakina got off to a fantastic start to the 2024 season. The 2022 Wimbledon champion won three WTA 500-level titles; the Brisbane International, the Abu Dhabi Open, and the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart. However, illnesses and injuries, and subsequent withdrawals from tournaments marred the Kazakh's second half of the season.
Recently, Rennae Stubbs, the Australian former doubles specialist who coached Serena Williams for her 2022 US Open campaign, talked about Elena Rybakina and Goran Ivanisevic's collaboration. Her assessment of the partnership came during an episode of The Rennae Stubbs Tennis Podcast.
"This guy (Stefano Vukov), every time he'd be out there, he'd be gesturing like he wanted to kill her (Elena Rybakina) every time she lost a point. Goran (Ivanisevic), on the other hand, is going to be positive. He is going to understand what it feels like to be vulnerable. He's going to be empathetic. The guy was a bit of a mental case on the court himself," Stubbs said.
Stubbs also predicted that Ivanisevic would enjoy coaching Rybakina, and the relationship between the two would not be as tense as it was between the Croat and Novak Djokovic. While Ivanisevic guided Djokovic to nine of the Serb's 24 Major titles, the two were often at loggerheads, even during matches.
"He's going to be pokerfaced the whole time. So he's going to love the fact that he's working with somebody who's not going to be demonstrative like him or Novak, to be honest," Stubbs added.
Ivanisevic himself explained his decision to work with Rybakina in a recent interview.
"I needed something completely different" - Goran Ivanisevic on choosing to work with Elena Rybakina
In an interview with Sportklub, Goran Ivanisevic expressed his thoughts about working with Elena Rybakina. The Croat, who is still widely regarded as one of the greatest servers in tennis, stated that after his successful spell as Novak Djokovic's coach, he required a fresh challenge.
"After Novak, it's hard to train anyone, so I needed something completely different. When you are the coach of the greatest tennis player of all time, then you need something completely new. So - either a young player or something completely on the other side, and that is exactly the WTA tour," Ivanisevic told Sportklub.
Rybakina's 2024 season came to an end after her exit from the WTA Finals in the Round Robin phase. The Kazakh lost her first two matches at the year-end event, first to Jasmine Paolini and then to Zheng Qinwen.
As a result, Elena Rybakina's last match in the Round Robin phase against World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka will be inconsequential. However, she has expressed her desire to test Sabalenka in their matchup.