Goran Ivanisevic will not continue coaching Elena Rybakina (Image: Getty)
Goran Ivanisevic has confirmed that he will stop coaching after their trial peroid came to an end at the .
The announcement comes one day after the No. 6 seed crashed out to Madison Keys in the fourth round.
Rybakina hired Ivanisevic ahead of last year’s WTA Finals and they started working together in the off-season. But their partnership was marred when the Kazakh rehired her former coach, Stefano Vukov, and news broke that Vukov was
Ivanisevic took to on Tuesday to announce that he would not continue working with Rybakina. “After our trial peroid that finished with , I wish Elena and her team best of luck moving forward,” he wrote.
Rybakina had already cast doubt over the future of their partnership after losing to 19th seed Keys on Monday.
Asked if she planned to keep Ivanisevic in her team, the former finalist in Melbourne said: “Well, we still need to talk, of course, because as I said, we just tried the preseason, and these couple of tournaments it was something just getting used to each other.
“We will definitely talk how the next schedule is going to look like.”
Elena Rybakina crashed out in the fourth round of the Australian Open (Image: Getty)
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Ivanisevic joined Rybakina’s team for a pre-season training block in Dubai before heading Down Under for the 2025 season. He was spotted in the Kazakh team box during the United Cup and was in the world No. 7’s corner for the .
But their partnership quickly became uncertain when Rybakina rehired her former coach Vukov. The pair had split ahead of the 2024 US Open.
“Hello everyone, I am excited to announce that Stefano will be joining the team for the 2025 season. Thank you for all the support and wishing you a great 2025,” she announced on New Year’s Day.
A day later, revealed that the provisionally suspended Vukov while under investigation for a breach of the tour’s Code of Conduct. While suspended, he will not be granted credentials for WTA Tour events. Tennis Australia followed suit and Vukov did not receive accreditation for the .
The women’s tennis tour reportedly launched the investigation after Rybakina and Vukov ended their coaching partnership last August. The WTA received complaints about Vukov’s conduct.
Vukov has not been interviewed as part of the investigation and denies breaking the WTA’s code and, in a statement to The Athletic, said: “Definitely never abused anyone.”
Rybakina has reportedly refuted allegations about her coach to the tour and was not one of the people who launched a complaint.
Ivanisevic was said to have been “blindsided” by Rybakina’s decision to publicly announce that Vukov was rejoining the team but did not want to comment on the situation publicly until the investigation had concluded and a decision made on allowing Vukov to return to the tour as a coach.
A decision is expected to be made public at the conclusion of the .