Dubai Tennis Championships: Jessica Pegula defeats Elina Svitolina to claim 10th WTA title

Jessica Pegula said she couldn’t have asked for a better start to 2026 after beating Elina Svitolina in straight sets to win the Dubai Tennis Championships.

American fourth seed Pegula reached the semi-finals of the Brisbane International and Australian Open in January before beating Ukrainian seventh seed Svitolina 6-2 6-4 in Dubai on Saturday to claim her first title of the year.

Pegula said she would win in the final, her 10th WTA title, after reaching seven consecutive tour semifinals.

“I couldn’t ask for more. I’ve been playing really good tennis over the past six months,” she said.

“I’d been to seven semi-finals in a row and I thought, ‘You know what, a championship would be nice, maybe it’ll happen this week’, and it did.”

Pegula also admitted she “couldn’t have asked for a better birthday present” for the world number five, who turns 32 on February 24.

Svitolina came into the match perhaps feeling the aftereffects of defeating Coco Gauff the day before in an epic three-hour contest, with Pegula immediately taking control of the match.

Pegula soon went into a double break, and despite some resistance from Svitolina, Pegula went on to end the first set as the Ukrainian found the back of the net.

In the second set, Pegula’s deep, angled shots continued to force Svitolina, who won the title in Dubai in 2017 and 2018, to make mistakes.

Svitolina saved a championship point on serve, but was unable to prevent the loss of the next game. Pegula sealed the championship with an ace.

The win makes Pegula the third American to win in Dubai, joining Lindsay Davenport and three-time champion Venus Williams.