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Elena Rybakina's coach Stefano Vukov received strong criticism from the tennis world after he was seen venting his anger at the player during her 2023 Australian Open semifinal clash against Victoria Azarenka.
Rybakina defeated two-time Australian Open champion Azarenka 7-6(4), 6-3 in one hour and 41 minutes to reach the finals in Melbourne for the first time in her career. The 2022 Wimbledon champion has eliminated three Grand Slam winners in back-to-back-to-back matches — World No. 1 Iga Swiatek in the fourth round, former French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko in the quarterfinals, and Azarenka in the last four.
Serving for the first set at 5-3, the 22nd seed failed to hold, allowing Azarenka to crawl back. Ryabkina was three break points down at 5-5, 0-40 when an agitated Vukov was shown yelling at her, suggesting that she wasn't thinking clearly.
Journalist Ben Rothenberg took to social media to raise concerns over coaches speaking to the player constantly, to which former player Pam Shriver replied:
"As long as coaches speak (and act) respectfully to the players they coach."
A number of angry fans also reacted to the clip, urging Rybakina to fire Vukov, who has been working with the player since 2019. They were of the view that the former Croatian player was doing more harm than good to Rybakina.
"Rybakina had to battle both Vika and her coach in that set. That man was making me nervous throughout with his constant complaining and terrible body language, can't imagine it was helping Elena much," a fan tweeted.
"I could very, very happily go for the rest of my life without seeing another shot of Elena Rybakina's coach yelling at her. If any broadcast directors are listening/interested," a user wrote.
"Rennae Stubbs spoke about him on her podcast a while ago… saying he is verbally aggressive in training, gym etc and basically telling her get out," another tweet read.
Here are a few more reactions:
"I just was playing point by point no matter the score" - Elena Rybakina
Elena Rybakina's semifinal clash against Victoria Azarenka was the Kazakh's first night-session match at the 2023 Australian Open and she found it difficult to adjust to the conditions.
Rybakina beat the Belarusian 7-6(4), 6-3 to reach the summit clash, where she will face Aryna Sabalenka on Saturday, January 28. The first set saw both players breaking each other's serve twice before Ryabkina won the tiebreak.
In her press conference afterwards, the Wimbledon champion revealed how she got through the match, stating that she simply played point by point without looking at the score.
"I was focusing on myself because conditions were completely different," Rybakina said. "I couldn't get free points on my serve that easily like during the day when I played the matches. I knew that I just needed to adjust. It was just a matter to be more focused on these important moments. In the end, I just was playing point by point no matter the score. Yeah, just everything went well."
