The WTA 1000 Qatar Open is scheduled to conclude today, with the Canadian teenager Victoria Mboko taking on the 14th seed Karolína Muchová in the championship match. WTA is already organizing the next tournament, the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, another WTA 1000 event in the United Arab Emirates.
Elena Rybakina, Amanda Anisimova, and Others’ Path at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships Main Draw
Many top-ranked players, including Elena Rybakina, Amanda Anisimova, Coco Gauff, and others, are set to headline the hard-court event, with the schedule being released on Saturday, February 14.
The WTA 1000 event in Dubai is a one-week tournament, with the main draw commencing on February 15 and the finals scheduled for Saturday, February 21. The event will be played on the hard courts of the Aviation Club Tennis Center in Dubai, UAE, with a prize pool of around $4 million.
Two of the world’s top-ranked players, Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Świątek, withdrew from the tournament, citing medical reasons and physical recovery as the reasons behind the decision.
🇦🇪 Dubai | WTA 1000 | Main Draw pic.twitter.com/nf1BxzzNlA
— 🩵 (@VenusGauff) February 14, 2026
The World No. 3 Rybakina thus enters the tournament as the first seed, receiving a bye in the first-round match. She will face either Tatjana Maria, a qualifier, or a lucky loser in the second-round match and could face the 15th seed Muchová or the British No. 1 Emma Raducanu in the next match.
If she manages to overcome all of her opponents, she will potentially face the seventh seed, Elina Svitolina, in the quarterfinals. This sets up a potential clash against Gauff and sixth seed Jasmine Paolini in the semifinals, and a clash against either Anisimova, Jessica Pegula, Mirra Andreeva, or Ekaterina Alexandrova in the finals.
American No. 1 Anisimova enters the tournament as the second seed and will face either Barbora Krejčíková or Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the second round match. In the next match, she could face the 13th seed Liudmila Samsonova or Canadian Leylah Fernandez, before taking on the fifth seed Mirra Andreeva or the 11th seed Mboko in the quarterfinals. If she wins all her matches so far, she could face fellow American Pegula or Alexandrova in the semifinals, and could face Rybakina, Gauff, Paolini, or Svitolina in the final.
Gauff’s path to the finals could be challenging, with her first match potentially against Jelena Ostapenko or Anna Kalinskaya, followed by either Emma Navarro or the winner of Marie Bouzkova and Elise Mertens.
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If she reaches the quarterfinals, she could face Paolini or tenth seed Linda Nosková before securing a semifinal spot, where she could face either Rybakina, Svitolina, Belinda Bencic, or Muchová. If she reaches the final, she could face one of the other top seeds of the tournaments: Anisimova, Pegula, Andreeva, or Alexandrova.
The fourth seed in the tournament, Pegula, receives a bye in the first round, setting up a potential clash with a qualifier or a lucky loser in the second round. She could then face fellow American Iva Jovic in the next round, before reaching the last eight of the tournament, where she could face Alexandrova or the 12th seed Clara Tauson. She would most probably face Anisimova or Andreeva in the semifinal before taking on Rybakina, Gauff, Paolini, or Svitolina in the final.
The tournament promises major clashes in the week leading up to the men’s ATP 500 tournament, from February 23 to 28.
