Elena Rybakina declines photo with women’s tennis chief at WTA Tour Finals trophy ceremony
New WTA Tour Finals champion Elena Rybakina declined a photo with WTA Tour chief executive Portia Archer during Saturday’s trophy ceremony in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in the wake of the tour’s investigation into her coach, Stefano Vukov.
Rybakina posed with runner-up Aryna Sabalenka, whom she had defeated 6-3, 7-6(0), but when Archer joined Sabalenka, Rybakina stood away to the right-hand side of the duo. A male official gestured toward Rybakina to join the two women for a picture, but she raised a hand and remained alone.
Rybakina refused to take a pic next to the WTA CEO? 👀 pic.twitter.com/A92ps4LLYl
— Lorena Popa 🕵️♀️🎾 (@popalorena) November 8, 2025
A WTA Tour spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Rybakina initially declined to comment when asked about the snub in her news conference, but when asked again — and asked whether or not she had had discussions with the tour about the investigation — she said: “Well, I think we’re all doing our job, and we had the opportunity to have conversations, but in the end, they never happened.
“So we’re all doing our job, and I think we’re going to keep it this way.”
The WTA provisionally suspended Vukov from coaching and obtaining credentials for WTA events last fall, before barring him for one year following the conclusion of a code of conduct investigation.
In a confidential letter summarizing the investigation which was obtained by The Athletic, Archer summarized Vukov’s violations 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.”
During the investigation, Rybakina publicly maintained that Vukov had “never mistreated her,” and the coach appealed the suspension ahead of this year’s French Open. It was lifted in August, after Vukov and the WTA entered into private arbitration.
His violations included refusing to leave Rybakina’s New York hotel in 2024 after a representative for the player told him he had been fired. Vukov flooded Rybakina’s 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.
“Definitely never abused anyone,” Vukov wrote in a text message sent to The Athletic in January.
Rybakina thanked Vukov when she won the Strasbourg International in May, her first title in 13 months, when he was still barred from coaching and attending events. Saturday, he was in her box as she won the second-biggest title of her career, after Wimbledon 2022, and earned more than $ 5 million in the process.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
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