Over a tumultuous two days in New York in August, in the lead-up to last year’s U.S. Open, Stefano Vukov tried to convince Elena Rybakina to reunite with him one more time.
Told by a member of Rybakina’s team that he had been dismissed as her coach and to leave her alone, Vukov instead walked the lobby and hallways of her Manhattan hotel. He flooded her phone with text messages and more than 100 calls — according to sources with personal and professional relationships with Rybakina who were present at the hotel — as he sought another chance to convince Rybakina that her tennis career could not thrive without him.
Vukov’s actions in New York pushed several members of Rybakina’s inner circle to tell WTA Tour officials that they feared for the safety of the 2022 Wimbledon champion, those sources say. The governing body of women’s tennis, which had already received multiple complaints from observers about Vukov’s behavior as a coach, opened an independent investigation into him. It provisionally suspended Vukov from coaching and from obtaining WTA credentials to tennis events. It also imposed a no-contact directive between him and Rybakina while the investigation unfolded.
On Jan. 31, WTA chief executive Portia Archer informed Vukov and Rybakina of the…
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