Australian Open winner Elena Rybakina’s ‘sassy’ reply to coach was caught on camera

The Australian Open champion Elena Rybakina has never been afraid to speak her mind and once clapped back at her coach, with fans calling her comment ‘iconic’

Tennis ace stunned Elena Rybakina stunned world number one Aryna Sabalenka to win her first Australian Open title on Saturday.

Kazakh fifth seed Rybakina was 3-0 down in the final set, with Sabalenka looking good for a fifth major singles trophy. But the 2022 Wimbledon champion won five successive games before completing a 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 victory to avenge her loss to two-time winner Sabalenka in the 2023 final Down Under.

It’s not the first time 26-year-old Rybakina has left fans staggered by her performances on court, as she once found herself the centre of attention after telling off her coach mid-match, back at the Cincinnati Open in August 2023.

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That day the tennis ace was in dominant form and dispatched of Jelena Ostapenko in three sets in their Round of 32 match-up. Her battle with the Latvian wasn’t the only one going on the court, as when she was one set down to her opponent, Rybakina was seen firmly telling her coach Stefano Vukov: “If I need something I’ll ask.”

Having been coached by the former pro since 2019, the pair’s relationship was certainly fruitful, considering the Kazakhstani’s maiden major at SW19 the previous year. Regardless of their shared success, that didn’t stop fans on social media praising Rybakina for her “iconic” comment to Vukov.

One fan on X wrote: “Elena is lowkey SASSY” while another commented: “She was like no no no, let me cook a bit.”

Rybakina has also previously shown she has no issues with sticking up for herself and her fellow players, after she took aim at the WTA that same week, calling the leadership of the organisation “weak”.

Rain delays in Montreal during the Canadian Open that year caused significant delays to both her quarter-final and semi-final matches, which left Rybakina playing until 3am in a win against Daria Kasatkina.

Her semi-final against Liudmila Samsonova was delayed as the tennis ace admitted she couldn’t get to sleep until 5am and she subsequently lost to the Russian.

Following her defeat, she said: “I feel destroyed just because of the scheduling and the whole situation, I’m not really happy about it, but yeah, it is what it is. Unfortunately, players cannot do much in these situations. The decision is not really ours. The weather was not helpful.”

She called out the WTA leadership for being “weak” and “unprofessional” as she said she hoped the situation would not happen again.

“It’s the first time and hopefully the last time because I think it’s been a little bit unprofessional from the – I cannot say really the tournament because I think that the most important is the WTA here.

“Leadership is a little bit weak for now, but hopefully something is going to change because this year it was many situations which I cannot really understand.”