Dubai Tennis Championships: Jessica Pegula defeats Elina Svitolina and wins her tenth WTA title

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

American Pegula, seeded fourth, reached the semi-finals in the Brisbane International and Australian Open tournaments last January, before winning her first title this year with a 6-2, 6-4 victory over Ukrainian Svitolina, seeded seventh, in Dubai on Saturday.

Pegula said her win in the final, her 10th WTA Tour title, was well deserved after reaching the semi-finals seven consecutive times in the tournament.

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

“I reached the semi-finals seven times in a row and I said to myself, ‘You know what, the title would be great, maybe it will happen this week,’ and it did.”

Pegula also admitted she “couldn’t have asked for a better birthday present”, as the world number five is due to turn 32 on February 24.

Svitolina entered the bout perhaps feeling the effects of her win over Coco Gauff the day before in an epic three-hour clash, in which Pegula immediately took control.

Pegula succeeded in breaking her serve early, and despite some resistance from Svitolina, she continued to win the first set when the Ukrainian player found the net.

In the second set, Pegula’s deep strokes continued to force Svitolina, who won in Dubai in 2017 and 2018, to make errors.

Svitolina saved one point in the tournament on her serve, but she was unable to prevent defeat in the next game, and Pegula sealed the title with an ace.

With this victory, Pegula became the third American to win in Dubai, after Lindsay Davenport and three-time champion Venus Williams.