The Color Game. “Humans can’t reliably recall colors. This is a simple game to see how good (or bad) you are at it. We’ll show you five colors, then you’ll try and recreate them.” I scored 39/50 but got a perfect score on one color.
A WTA investigation summary obtained by The Athletic said that Stefano Vukov engaged in "abusive conduct" toward Elena Rybakina.
Summary about Stefano Vukov‘s Code of Conduct Investigation, including new detail of Rybakina’s 2024 US Swing troubles 🗣️
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 investigation’s conclusions. Having violated the WTA Tour’s code of conduct, Vukov would be banned from coaching for one year, and would have to take classes in appropriate coaching behavior.
In a confidential three-page summary of the investigation sent to Vukov and Rybakina and reviewed by The Athletic, Archer outlined Vukov’s violations of the code of conduct as:
“Engaging in abuse of authority and abusive conduct towards the WTA Player, including compromising or attempting to compromise the psychological, physical or emotional well-being of the Player; engaging in physical and verbal abuse of the Player; and, exploiting your relationship with the Player for further personal and/or business interests at the expense of the best interest of the Player.”
Archer concluded that Vukov had harassed Rybakina in New York, “despite her request to give her space.” Her letter said that Vukov had ridiculed and abused Rybakina during coaching, calling her “stupid” and ”retarded” as well as “throwing balls and yelling at her,” and saying that she would still be in Russia “picking potatoes” without him.
It specified that Vukov’s “mental abuse” and his pushing Rybakina “to or beyond her limits” had manifested as “a physical illness or other symptoms”; Rybakina missed or withdrew from several events in 2024 with illness and injury. Vukov, Archer’s letter said, also received an email from Rybakina’s mother requesting that he not make her daughter cry, and refused to coach her at one event as a result. The investigation also concluded that Vukov had violated the WTA’s no-contact directive, with Archer writing that he continued to “brazenly defy it even as this letter is penned.”
“We need a safe environment for everyone,” Archer wrote, describing Vukov’s behavior as a “contradiction” of that.
Vukov, 37, has denied any wrongdoing and is considering an appeal, which he must submit by Feb. 21, according to Archer’s letter.
Rybakina, 25 and a native of Russia who represents Kazakhstan, reversed her decision to part ways with Vukov in autumn 2024 and has since defended his treatment of her. As the WTA was investigating Vukov, Rybakina told multiple sources in attendance at her recent events that her relationship with him had become personal and romantic.
Archer’s letter also noted the shift in their relationship. It said there was evidence that they stayed in the same hotel room in Melbourne for the Australian Open and that “there is increasing evidence that you are now involved in a romantic relationship.”
“It’s clear to me that the relationship you have created with the Player is unhealthy,” Archer wrote, adding that witnesses described Vukov and Rybakina’s relationship as “toxic.”
Vukov did not respond to numerous messages seeking comment about the incident in New York and the WTA’s investigation. In a text message sent to The Athletic in January he wrote, “Definitely never abused anyone.”
Rybakina also did not respond to several requests for comment made through her representatives.
— External Complaints from Coaches
By January 2025, when Vukov had been provisionally suspended for several months, tour officials had been receiving complaints about his behavior toward Rybakina from other coaches and players for at least three years, according to sources briefed on the investigation, as well as others with knowledge of Rybakina and Vukov’s coaching relationship.
At the 2022 Miami Open, a coach for another WTA player witnessed what he described as a nasty confrontation between Vukov and Rybakina. It was on the turf of the Hard Rock Stadium, in the warm-up area outside the main court. The coach says he saw Rybakina doing a footwork drill, under Vukov’s supervision.
Vukov, the coach said, repeatedly questioned her intelligence, calling her stupid and asking how she could not understand simple instruction. The coach said he would not want anyone speaking to him or his daughter that way and felt compelled to file a complaint.
He says he walked over to the tournament office and told an official about the incident. The official, he says, gave him the email of Steve Simon, the now chairman of the WTA Tour who was then its chief executive.
In an email that the coach sent to Simon that day, March 23, 2022, which he read to The Athletic, he described Vukov as angry and speaking close to Rybakina while pointing a finger at her face.
He wrote that he heard Vukov say, ”You’re not very smart,” and “it would take you 50 times to do it right.”
Simon responded 15 minutes later, the coach said, stating the issue was important and promising to follow up. He later asked the coach if he wanted to receive updates on the matter or remain confidential. The coach said he chose to remain confidential. Simon did not respond to a request for comment made via a WTA spokesperson.
Statements from other WTA Players
He had previously worked at the Pro-World Academy in Delray Beach, Fla., coaching WTA players, including Sachia Vickery, Renata Zarazua and Anhelina Kalinina. The Athletic attempted to contact all three players; Zarazua, the world No. 69 from Mexico, said in an interview via Zoom that Vukov was always respectful towards her.
“Sometimes I think when you are with a coach they become like your brother almost, you spend so much time with them,” she said. “It’s honestly so sad to hear what has happened.”She added that they had lost touch.
Kalinina did not respond to a message on social media; reached by text message, Vickery did not respond to a request to discuss her time working with Vukov in time for inclusion in this story.
2024 Struggles
For the next year and a half, Rybakina struggled with injury and illness and withdrew from a number of tournaments, including the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells, Calif., the Italian Open in Rome and the Paris Olympics. At the French Open last May, Rybakina gave a terse news conference in which she dismissed reporters’ “simple questions,” later revealing that she had been struggling with insomnia. Archer’s letter specified that Vukov’s “throwing balls and yelling” happened during a practice at Wimbledon in the same year.
Results elsewhere, like winning the Stuttgart Open in Germany, had been good enough to keep Rybakina’s ranking at No. 4.
“She’s just in her hotel room, quite solitary,” said one WTA executive in contact with Rybakina around the time she split with Vukov. “It’s quite sad really, she didn’t used to be like that.”
2024 Cincinnati
People with her at the Western & Southern Open, held in Cincinnati in mid-August, said that Rybakina had been struggling with sleep prior to that tournament, and few in her inner circle expected her to play the main tuneup before the U.S. Open. But days before the start of the tournament, Vukov let the rest of the team know that she would play, those sources said.
Vukov did not attend that tournament. Rybakina played under the guidance of Lovro Zovko, a Croatian who has worked closely with the tennis federation of Kazakhstan, which has funded Rybakina’s development since she was 18. In exchange, Rybakina agreed to represent Kazakhstan. She now lives in Dubai, as does Vukov.
Rybakina's insomnia worsened in Cincinnati, according to sources who were present at the event. During her second-round match, a loss against Leylah Fernandez of Canada, they said she struggled to keep track of what was going on and Zovko repeatedly had to tell her the score and where to serve
2024 USO Arrival & Subsequent Withdrawal
Rybakina arrived in New York for the U.S. Open having not slept in several days, sources said, adding that people around her had expressed concerns about her appearance and demeanor. Archer’s letter informing Vukov of the WTA’s decision cited an email from Rybakina’s mother to Vukov in which, Archer writes, she asked her daughter’s coach not to make her cry again. Archer’s letter also specified a connection between what the investigation found to be Vukov’s “mental abuse” of Rybakina and her physical fitness, saying that the abuse “would sometimes manifest in the Player as a physical illness.”
For months, her friends and family had been concerned about her relationship with Vukov, according to multiple sources around Rybakina during that time. After conversations at her New York hotel, they appeared to have convinced her that she should break with him as a coach, they said. Rybakina informed her representatives that she was ready to make a change and asked them to do whatever was necessary to keep Vukov away -canceling his hotel room and his credential for the tournament, according to the sources.
Vukov had just arrived in New York. He was at the hotel, roaming the lobby trying to find a way to speak with her. Rybakina had dismissed him and informed the rest of her team that he was no longer her coach several times before, the sources said. Then, they said, Vukov would find her, speak with her and convince her to take him back.
In New York, members of her team worked to prevent that cycle from happening again. Vukov refused to leave the hotel without speaking with Rybakina. He called her phone over 100 times and sent her numerous text messages, according to a person present who saw them as well as the WTA letter summarizing its investigation.
Then one of her representatives confronted Vukov, telling him he had been asked by Rybakina to procure security to remove him from the hotel and keep him away from Rybakina. Shortly after, Vukov left, according to the people present.
On Aug. 23, three days before the start of the U.S. Open, Rybakina announced on social media that Vukov would no longer be coaching her.
“Hello everyone, After 5 years, Stefano and I are no longer working together,” she wrote in an Instagram Story.
“I thank him for his work on-court and wish him all the best for the future. Thank you for all your support.”
At the time, several members of her team expected her to pull out of the tournament. The next day, though, she said she wanted to try to practice. On the court, she felt good enough to try competing. She won her first-round match over Destanee Aiava of Australia in straight sets. Two days later, exhausted and still struggling with sleep, she defaulted her second-round match against Jessika Ponchet before it started.
“Unfortunately, I have to withdraw from my match today due to my injuries,” Rybakina said in a statement via the WTA.
By then, officials on site at the tournament had been informed of what had occurred with Vukov at Rybakina’s hotel. Rybakina has publicly maintained that she has not filed a formal complaint with WTA officials about Vukov, but the information the organization received was enough for the organization to open an investigation and provisionally suspend him.
Within weeks, however, Vukov and Rybakina were in contact once more
Allegations of Coercion & Influence
It also is not clear that tennis officials have the power to enforce their directives away from their venues. Under the provisional suspension Vukov received in September, he was not supposed to be in contact with Rybakina, but as the investigation progressed, Rybakina made numerous complaints to tour officials that they were preventing her from having the coach of her choosing. She considered actions as drastic as boycotting tournaments or the entire tour, according to people with personal and professional relationships with her.
“The documented evidence of your increased contact likely impacted the independence of the investigation and your interference could be considered coercion of the Player,” Archer’s letter says.
“There is no doubt that you influenced, and continue to influence, the Player’s feelings around this investigation and its outcome.”Sources in attendance at Rybakina’s most recent events and briefed on the ongoing investigation said that Rybakina and Vukov speak regularly about her matches, and did so during events she played during his provisional suspension, even though he is not formally allowed to coach her.
Two sources briefed on their working arrangement suggested that Vukov could also take over Rybakina’s representation and management while under suspension. He would become everything but her formal coach, assuming a wider-reaching role than before
Suspension Details
Then, five days after the Australian Open, the WTA sent Vukov the three-page letter that remains the only window into the full investigation that anyone outside the organization and its independent authority has seen.
Under the terms of his 12-month suspension,
Vukov is ineligible to register for the WTA Coaching Program.
If he fails to comply with the terms, there is the option of “permanent ineligibility from obtaining a credential to any WTA tournaments,”
He is barred from staying in player hotels and player hotel rooms for the duration of that suspension.
Vukov has arranged for Davide Sanguinetti to serve as Rybakina’s stand-in coach during tournaments for the duration of the suspension; he continues to work with her away from events. “Stefano and I talk a lot, we are on the same wavelength,” Sanguinetti said in an interview with La Gazzetta dello Sport at the start of February. The WTA’s ban does not prevent Rybakina from using Vukov as her agent, manager or anything other than a formal coach.
lesbian dinah and lesbian greaseball is so important to me, and so is their relationship development
in my heart GB was Dinah’s gay awakening a lil bit and I end up writing that into a lot of my fics and aus because I think it’s adorable
Like Dinah’s maybe dated a couple guys, she wasn’t that interested in them. Then GB rolls into the station one day and she’s beside herself internally. She’s never felt like this about anyone before and it’s so intense.
GB knows she’s gay, her sexuality might be the one thing she’s really genuinely secure in, so she’s a little unsure of getting with someone just figuring themselves out like Dinah is.
They give it a shot though, and they’re like two puzzle pieces finally slotting together. Sure they have their moments, but they love each other deeply and they work it out.
To me what occurs in canon is like, super out of the ordinary for their relationship, and of course this is my headcanon. Dinah consistently seems shocked by Greaseball’s rejections of her affection, implying that doesn’t usually happen.
I think both of them are very insecure, and derive their security from different things. GB’s security comes from her champion status. She believes that if she isn’t the champion, she will lose everything, Dinah included. Dinah’s security comes from her relationship, why is why she absolutely crashes out when left in the dust. Her support and security has left her.
They both have to find their strength and security in other things before they can fully heal, because before there wasn’t a threat pulling them apart.
Dinah finds support in Belle and Tassita, and later, security in herself. She exerts her own autonomy in deciding she doesn’t want to race with Electra anymore, she decides she is going to forgive Greaseball, and that’s because she finally trusts herself.
Greaseball on the other hand, has to learn that she can rely on others. Her champion title is lost, but Dinah stays by her side, forgives her, and loves her anyway, and that allows her to find a new source of security. She is enough, without all of the glamour of being a champion.
anyway i sob over them every day of the week i teared up writing this SHHHH
We all saw Elon Musk do the nazi salute at the Trump inauguration. We know that he is influencing and fanning the flames of right wing political parties.
And that very well may include ours.
Because Elon Musk has pledged to donate $100 million to the Reform party. He has since mentioned that it might be hard to give such a large sum now.
But I don’t think we should take our chances. And I think we can agree that letting billionaires influence our countries politics is a terrible idea.
If you also agree here’s a link to a Parliament petition.
It calls for the government to remove loopholes that allow wealthy foreign individuals to make donations into UK political parties (e.g. by funnelling through UK registered companies).
As it is a parliament petition the government are required to debate it in parliament. But for that to happen it needs to reach 100,000 signatures.
Non British folk I’m afraid you guys can’t sign but I encourage you guys to reblog so that more people can see this.
Just a note to say that British citizens AND Non-British UK residents can sign Parliament petitions so if you like me are the latter don't let it deter you from signing. And obviously share either way!
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