Elena Rybakina joins elite with US Open title but questions remain over coach | Tumaini Carayol

New world No 1’s relationship with her previously banned coach, Stefano Vukov, remains under spotlight despite her rise to the top In the bitter aftermath of her straight-sets defeat by Elena Rybakina at the WTA Finals last November, an inconsolable Aryna Sabalenka walked over to her courtside player box and slumped into a chair.

She had been completely overpowered by her opponent, a strange and unusual feeling for such a powerful player, and she was seething. Sabalenka eventually settled on a popular Russian idiom to explain Rybakina’s untouchable form, which she believed was fortunately timed: “Once a year, even a stick shoots,” she said. That stick, it turns…