Stefano Vukov (born 27 March 1987) is a Croatian

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

coach. He has coached

Women's Tennis Association The Women's Tennis Association (WTA) is the principal organizing body of women's professional tennis. It governs the WTA Tour which is the worldwide professional tennis tour for women and was founded to create a better future for women's tenni ...

(WTA) player

Elena Rybakina Elena Andreyevna Rybakina (born 17 June 1999) is a Kazakhstani professional tennis player. She is the reigning champion at Wimbledon and the first Kazakhstani player to win a title at a major. She is also the first to be ranked in the world's to ...

since 2019.

Early life and playing career

Vukov was born in

Rijeka Rijeka ( , , ; also known as Fiume hu, Fiume, it, Fiume ; local Chakavian: ''Reka''; german: Sankt Veit am Flaum; sl, Reka) is the principal seaport and the third-largest city in Croatia (after Zagreb and Split). It is located in Primor ...

, Croatia. His mother is a dentist and his father is a software engineer. He started playing tennis at age 12 and went to attend college while aspiring to play professional tennis. Vukov played mostly on the ITF Futures Circuit, reaching a career-high Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) ranking of No. 1122 in 2007, and retired in 2009. A couple years later, he began to coach professionally at a tennis facility in Florida, working with future WTA Tour players including

Sachia Vickery Sachia Vickery (born May 11, 1995) is an American professional tennis player. She first entered the top 100 in 2018 and eventually reached a career-high of No. 73 in the world in the WTA rankings. Her best results on the WTA Tour came at the 2 ...

Renata Zarazúa Renata Zarazúa Ruckstuhl (; born 30 September 1997) is a Mexican tennis player. She reached a best singles ranking of world No. 117 in September 2021, and she peaked at No. 135 in the doubles rankings on 8 October 2018. Zarazúa made her WTA To ...

, and

Anhelina Kalinina Anhelina Serhiyivna Kalinina ( uk, Ангеліна Сергіївна Калініна ; born 7 February 1997) is a Ukrainian professional tennis player. Kalinina has won 15 singles titles and three doubles titles on the ITF Circuit. On 27 June ...

Coaching career

In February 2019,

, then ranked just within the WTA's top 200, hired Vukov to replace Moscow-based

Andrei Chesnokov Andrei Eduardovich Chesnokov (russian: Андрей Эдуардович Чесноков, links=no; born 2 February 1966) is a former professional tennis player from Russia. Career Chesnokov's highest singles ranking was World No. 9 in 1991. ...

as her first traveling coach. Rybakina credited Vukov, known for his analytic expertise, with helping to improve her game; she rose quickly through the rankings, entering the top 30 and winning her first two WTA Tour titles by early the next year. After Rybakina won her first

major Major (commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicators ...

title at the

2022 Wimbledon Championships The 2022 Wimbledon Championships was a Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Slam tier tennis tournament that took place at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, London, United Kingdom. Novak Djokovic successfully defended his gentleme ...

, Vukov followed through on a two-year-old bet to get a tattoo of Rybakina's name if she ever won Wimbledon. Vukov's "frantic and intense" style of on-court coaching of the typically stoical Rybakina has drawn attention. Vukov has said he "know very well how to get Elena angry" to energize her and how to help her tactically focus, with a mutual understanding "to push her even when she does not want to be pushed", but recognizes that to outsiders it can seem like "too much". During Rybakina's run to the final of the

2023 Australian Open The 2023 Australian Open was a Grand Slam level tennis tournament held at Melbourne Park, from 16–29 January 2023. It was the 111th edition of the Australian Open, the 55th in the Open Era, and the first major of the year. The tournament consi ...

, where she eventually lost to Aryna Sabalenka, Vukov attracted public criticism for his seemingly harsh midmatch comments from the player's box. In a social media post, Rybakina defended Vukov, saying that their relationship remains positive.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Vukov, Stefano 1987 births Living people Sportspeople from Rijeka Croatian male tennis players Croatian tennis coaches