Elena Rybakina has previously reached the final of the Australian Open. She competed in the final in 2023, when Aryna Sabalenka won her first Grand Slam title. The expectations for this year aren’t as great, but tennis commentator Jon Wertheim does not believe she’ll progress far at the Australian Open.
Rybakina, as one of the top seeds, will be optimistic of making it to the second week of the Australian Open. But Wertheim predicts she won’t even get that far. He and former player Andy Roddick discussed the Australian Open draw on the ‘Served with Andy Roddick’ podcast, and Wertheim explained why he doesn’t think Rybakina will get that far.
“I simply feel like there’s far too much chaos here. There will be several fascinating press briefings. Goran spoke briefly with Ben Rothenberg and confirmed what we had been hearing. This was an unplanned staff change.
There is simply too much going on here.” The chaos Wertheim mentioned is related to her coaching situation. She ended her relationship with Stefano Vukov last year, following months of speculation.
She then rehired Vukov, but the WTA provisionally suspended him shortly after owing to an ongoing investigation.
Wertheim believes Elena Rybakina’s performance will suffer due to the chaos caused by her hiring of Goran Ivanišević, who was unaware of her decision to rehire Vukov.
