comeback victory over world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka<\/a> in a rollercoaster final on Saturday night.<\/p>\nThe 26-year-old showed her class in coming back from 0-3 down in the third set to\u00a0win the title 6-4 4-6 6-4\u00a0on Rod Laver Arena.<\/p>\n
Sabalenka was left in tears after letting the Daphne Akhurst Memorial Cup slip through her fingers, while Rybakina served out the thriller and celebrated with a muted fist pump.<\/p>\n
Elena Ryabakina poses with her coaches after winning the Australian Open women\u2019s singles title on Jan. 31, 2026. Getty Images<\/p>\n
It was Rybakina\u2019s second grand slam title since she broke through to win Wimbledon in 2022.<\/p>\n
After shaking hands with Sabalenka and the chair umpire, Rybakina gave the crowd a humble wave with her racquet before walking to her coach\u2019s corner to embrace her team.<\/p>\n
The moment she hugged coach Stefano Vukov left many commentators uncomfortable.<\/p>\n
They were left squirming in their chairs even more so when Vukov was called onto the podium during the trophy ceremony to receive the trophy awarded to the victorious coach.<\/p>\n
Vukov received the trophy from former Aussie Open champ Jennifer Capriati before returning to stand on the left side of the stage.<\/p>\n
After shaking hands with Sabalenka and the chair umpire, Rybakina gave the crowd a humble wave with her racquet before walking to her coach\u2019s corner to embrace her team. REUTERS<\/p>\n
Elena Rybakina kisses the Australian Open women\u2019s singles trophy. AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n
Vukov, who helped Rybakina win Wimbledon, was previously under a provisional suspension over a potential breach of the WTA\u2019s code of conduct.<\/p>\n
Vukov was reported to have used harsh and abusive behavior towards players, claims he denied.<\/p>\n
Rybakina was exasperated by the allegations and suspension.<\/p>\n
\u201cI always said that he never mistreated me,\u201d she said at the time. Vukov was back in Rybakina\u2019s corner at the US Open last year, after the ban preventing him from entering all WTA tournament venues was lifted in August.<\/p>\n
The New York Times reported Rybakina and Vukov, 12 years her senior, stayed in the same hotel room during the 2025 Australian Open while he was banned and cited multiple sources claiming their relationship had become romantic.<\/p>\n
Vukov began working with Rybakina when she was 19.<\/p>\n
At the 2024 US Open, the report alleged, Vukov was \u201ctold by a member of Rybakina\u2019s team that he had been dismissed as her coach and to leave her alone.<\/p>\n
\u201cVukov instead walked the lobby and hallways of her Manhattan hotel. He flooded her phone with text messages and more than 100 calls \u2014 according to sources with personal and professional relationships with Rybakina who were present at the hotel \u2014 as he sought another chance to convince Rybakina that her tennis career could not thrive without him.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s why his presence on stage on Saturday night has caused such a stir.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was an awkward, uncomfortable moment seeing Stefano receive that trophy,\u201d leading tennis commentator Catherine Whitaker said on The Tennis Podcast.<\/p>\n
Vukov began working with Rybakina when she was 19. AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n
She described the introduction of the tournament\u2019s coaching award as a \u201cmisfire,\u201d saying the concept has bad \u201coptics.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had the moment tonight. I see the place it\u2019s coming from and that\u2019s great, but I just don\u2019t think it works and tonight was a particularly extreme example of how it felt very uncomfortable,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Podcast co-host Matt Roberts said: \u201cIt did feel uncomfortable. I got the sense that a lot of people in the crowd were uncomfortable with it. I thought a lot of people knew of Vukov\u2019s history.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt did feel like there was very muted applause. Just very awkward.\u201d<\/p>\n
She described the introduction of the tournament\u2019s coaching award as a \u201cmisfire,\u201d saying the concept has bad \u201coptics.\u201d Getty Images<\/p>\n
Rybakina was asked about Vukov\u2019s return during her post-match press conference.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, I didn\u2019t think anything particular, because we won many titles together, and even last year in Ningbo, WTA Finals, and now this trophy I felt just, again, proud and thankful to my team for the work,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, we did good preparation. We had some ups and downs during the preseason, even beginning of this year, first tournament. So, yeah, I\u2019m just super glad.<\/p>\n
\u201cAgain, I think it\u2019s a win for all the team, all the people who support me. I just hope that I can carry this moment throughout the whole season and keep on improving.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Rybakina barely celebrated the special moment she finished off the match with an ace.<\/p>\n
It was an unusual sight for many viewers to watch Rybakina\u2019s understated emotions as she humbly waved to the crowd and smiled.<\/p>\n
It was in stark contrast to\u00a0Sabalenka who was seen covering her head with a towel\u00a0as she sat down ahead of the trophy ceremony.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tennis commentators have slammed the Australian Open over the \u201cuncomfortable\u201d moment where Elena Rybakina\u2019s coach was awarded a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":444500,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[12083,9134,99,428],"class_list":["post-444499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-australian-open","tag-coaches","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=444499"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444499\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/444500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=444499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=444499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=444499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}