MELBOURNE, Australia — Madison Keys has knocked Elena Rybakina, the 2022 Wimbledon champion and No. 6 seed in Melbourne, out of the Australian Open.
Keys, a two-time semifinalist in Australia, beat Rybakina, 6-3, 1-6, 6-3. Rybakina had four break points to take a 2-0 lead in the deciding set after racing through the second, but Keys saved all four. The 29-year-old American then broke Rybakina’s serve at the first attempt in the following game; she relinquished the break before repeating the trick later in the set and serving out.
Rybakina was hampered by a back injury in her third-round win over No. 32 seed Dayana Yastremska, but looked to be moving more smoothly against Keys and said it did not affect the result.
Keys said in her news conference that she got “nervous” during the second set, but credited her work during the off-season for turning things around.
“My instinct is to kind of back up and try to play safe, but it doesn’t usually get me very far,” she said. “Today I think I was thinking a lot, especially in the last bit of the third set, and really making the conscious decision to try to be a little bit more aggressive and try to take the initiative more.”
Rybakina’s defeat ends a tournament in which her coaching situation has been center stage. On the eve of the tournament, the WTA confirmed that it had suspended Rybakina’s former coach, Stefano Vukov, pending a code of conduct investigation. Vukov has been barred from coaching and from entering the grounds of any WTA tennis event, as The Athletic exclusively reported earlier this month.
Rybakina confirmed that she had spoken to Vukov, who traveled to Melbourne, between matches during the tournament.
“Of course, I want to have who I want in the box, but I couldn’t change it,” she said.
“I just tried to focus on my matches, and I spoke with him. I also have Goran (Ivanisevic), so it didn’t affect the way I played today or any of the result, I think.”
Vukov has denied ever abusing Rybakina, and Rybakina has said he “never mistreated” her on two occasions. She split with the Croatian before the U.S. Open, but announced that he would be returning to her team on social media just ahead of the first Grand Slam of the year.
“I don’t agree with a lot of things what WTA do in the sense of my relationship with Stefano,” Rybakina said on the eve of the tournament. “As I said before, I have never made any complaints or any of these things. I always said that he never mistreated me.”
The WTA Tour first started receiving complaints about Vukov, which described his conduct towards Rybakina as harsh and at times aggressive, more than two years ago. It did not open a formal investigation against him until after Rybankina and her longtime coach parted ways, when officials received a new series of complaints.
GO DEEPER
Elena Rybakina says Stefano Vukov ‘never mistreated’ her amid WTA investigation
Sources briefed on the WTA Tour investigation, who like all the sources in this story spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect relationships, said tour officials had decided not to issue a decision on Vukov until Rybakina’s exit from the Australian Open, and possibly not before the tournament ends.
A WTA Tour spokesperson did not confirm a timeline for the decision during the first week of the tournament.
Rybakina hired Goran Ivanisevic, the former coach of Novak Djokovic, ahead of the WTA Tour Finals in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Ivanisevic joined her team for the 2025 season, and has been present in her coaching box in Melbourne.
Sources briefed on the WTA Tour investigation and who had attended Rybakina’s matches before the tournament characterized Ivanisevic as being blindsided by Rybakina’s public announcement, but not her decision.
It is not clear whether Ivanisevic will continue as her coach. Rybakina said in her news conference they would need to speak before making a decision, and described the arrangement to date as a process of “getting used to each other.”
Keys will face Elina Svitolina in the quarterfinals.
(Photo: Cameron Spencer / Getty Images)
