Stefano Vukov began coaching Elena Rybakina in February 2019, when she was still outside the WTA top 100. Now, after a rise that has carried her from prospect to Grand Slam winner, the 27-year-old is set to reach world No. 1 when the rankings update Monday.
That is why his name keeps surfacing now. Vukov has worked with Rybakina for most of the past seven years, and the pairing has tracked nearly every step of her climb: into the top 20 by the following year, then to Wimbledon glory in 2022, and later to another major final against Aryna Sabalenka on Saturday. For readers following her career arc, the coaching link is not a footnote. It is part of the story.
Rybakina won her first Grand Slam singles title at Wimbledon in 2022, beating Ons Jabeur in the final. Earlier this year, she defeated Sabalenka in the Australian Open championship match, a result that pushed the ranking race to the point where Monday's update would put her at the top. The sequence explains why Vukov's role matters: he has been there through the entire climb, not just the breakthrough.
But the partnership has never sounded simple. It has been described as successful, but also as anything but straightforward, and one detail gives that shape its most memorable edge: Vukov agreed that if Rybakina ever won Wimbledon, he would get her name tattooed. The promise fits a relationship built on trust and pressure in equal measure, and it leaves one small, human-sized question hanging over a career full of hard numbers.
What happens next is plain enough. The WTA rankings update Monday, and Rybakina is set to rise to world No. 1. After that, attention turns less to the climb than to what comes with it — including whether Vukov ever follows through on the tattoo he once promised.
