Elena Rybakina crushed Australian wildcard Emerson Jones 6-1 6-1 to reach the Australian Open second round but coach Stefano Vukov didn't sit in her box.
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Going into the Happy Slam, there was a lot of negative attention on the Kazakh after she returned the 37-year-old to her team, only to be revealed by the WTA that he was banned from coaching on the Tour because there is an ongoing investigation into his behavior.
However, Rybakina didn't look distracted a bit during her opening match in Melbourne as she fired 11 aces and had 26 winners.
In the first set, the No. 6 seed broke the 16-year-old rising star twice before earning three more breaks in the next set to complete a dominant straight-set win.
"Very happy with the performance, with the way I served also today. Looking forward for the next match," the 2023 Australian Open runner-up said following the win.
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In her next match, she plays against another rising star - world No. 191 Iva Jovic.
Rybakina was hoping Vukov would get cleared before the Australian Open
Last week, it was reported that the WTA could conclude their investigation every day so there was a chance the Kazakh could have her coach in the box on Day 1.
But when the match started, only Goran Ivanisevic was there.
Meanwhile, Rybakina unloaded on the media but also tennis community members in Melbourne, saying that it was unfair to make assumptions that he was treating her badly when she never indicated that could be the case.
"But definitely I dont agree with a lot of things the WTA did in the sense of my relationship with Stefano. As I said before, I have never made any complaints or said any of these things [that the media accused me of saying]. I always said he never mistreated me," the 25-year-old said in her pre-tournament presser.
