Iga Swiatek believes the WTA’s decision to ban Elena Rybakina’s coach Stefano Vukov for breaching the tour’s Code of Conduct should be respected and that the process behind it should be trusted.
Earlier this week, the WTA announced that the independent investigation into Vukov’s potential breach of the Code of Conduct has concluded and that his suspension “remains in place”.
The tour did not reveal the length of the suspension, nor the specific code that was breached, but sources have told The Athletic the coach was reported for verbally abusing Rybakina, who has denied such claims and has repeatedly said she is against the WTA’s decision.
The former Wimbledon champion said earlier this month that she was still in contact with Vukov and has spent time with him, and her new coach Davide Sanguinetti, during a training camp in Dubai.
Swiatek was asked to weigh in on the matter during her pre-tournament press conference ahead of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships on Sunday and admits the lack of information in the WTA’s statement makes it difficult to form an opinion.
“I guess everybody needs to respect the decision because we need to trust that the whole process was made with right rules,” said the world No 2.
“Every PT [personal trainer], every coach, they need to kind of accept the Code of Conduct when they want to be on WTA.
“So for sure I hope WTA is doing everything to make it a safe environment.”
American world No 3 Coco Gauff did not feel comfortable discussing Vukov’s suspension, given Rybakina’s opposition to the WTA’s decision, but added that she believes in the tour’s right to protect its players.
“From my understanding, I know she doesn't like the decision. I know WTA also has the right to protect her,” said the 20-year-old Gauff.
“Overall, I think it's nice that the WTA is making sure that they're out there to protect players.”
The WTA has upped its safeguarding efforts since last year, and has been encouraging players, team members, personnel and travelling media that are within their environment, to report any behaviour that can be construed as abuse.
The tour has offered ways for reporting to be done anonymously and has a safeguarding course on its platform that is mandatory for anyone in close contact with players on the circuit.
“I definitely think that that's important in our sport because a lot of times if you look, sometimes victims don't even know they are a victim. In this sport it's happened so many times. A lot of times you see former players speaking out years after their career ended how they were treated,” said Gauff.
“We went through a course [about safeguarding]. I know with the new system, all our of support team members had to go through a course. Hopefully it goes for protecting sports, not just tennis, but other sports as well.”
World No 5 Jessica Pegula, who is on the WTA Player Council, believes the tour is taking important steps towards safeguarding, and admits “tennis is just not a healthy sport for women as far as, like, you're very secluded from a young age.
“You're mentally travelling every single week. You're with a lot of different people. A lot of times your family can't come with you. When you start doing that at ages 13, 14, 15, it can go sideways fast. I think we've learned that from a lot of the cases back in the day.”
The WTA said it will not be releasing any details on the investigation into Vukov to “to protect the confidentiality and integrity of the investigation and its findings.”
The lack of transparency has raised question marks among tennis fans online but Pegula believes privacy is a key component for this safeguarding initiative to actually work.
“I think when it comes to things like that, privacy I think is really a priority. I know if I had something similar, I don't think I would want anyone airing my dirty laundry of maybe the incident or what happened or the people that were involved,” said the American.
“Also it's got to be a safe place for other players to report into. I shouldn't be able to know that so-and-so has been reporting things about me and my coach. Then that causes an issue between me and that player. I don't really think that's fair.”
