Preview WTA Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships 2026 Final | Jessica Pegula and Elina Svitolina set to shine in historic veteran clash

This Saturday the second WTA 1000 final of the season will be played, this time at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships – bringing the Middle East swing to an end. The protagonists will be Jessica Pegula and Elina Svitolina, a clash between two top-10 players who are coming off eliminating the top Americans Amanda Anisimova and Coco Gauff in the semi-finals.

For Pegula it will be her 8th WTA 1000 final – a category in which she has three titles, the last of them in Canada 2024. On Svitolina’s side, she is unbeaten in WTA 1000 finals with four titles in four appearances in finals. The Ukrainian is seeking her 5th WTA 1000 title and her second in Dubai – although she will have to overcome an eight-year drought in the category.

World No. 5 Jessica Pegula has had a great run in Dubai, with three consecutive wins against top-20 opponents: Iva Jovic (No. 2), then the 2025 runner-up Clara Tauson (No. 15) and finally in the semi-finals Amanda Anisimova (No. 6). The latter had also been her rival at the past Australian Open – three weeks ago – where Pegula also took the victory in straight sets to overcome her compatriot.

The 31-year-old player – who turns 32 on Monday – continues to demonstrate consistency at this stage of her career, reaching at least the semi-finals in the last seven tournaments she has played – a streak that extends from the US Open 2025. She is already positioned in the top-4 of the WTA Race (which only measures the points obtained in 2026) and has a 12-2 record this season.

Without doubt the American is one of the most experienced players on Tour in these types of stages: 7 WTA 1000 finals played and three titles so far. However, she has fallen in the last three WTA 1000 finals she has played (Cincinnati 2024, Miami and Wuhan 2025).

Pegula had never gone beyond the semi-finals in Dubai, and for the moment she has at least secured maintaining her place in the top-5. In case she claims the title, she will be fewer than 50 points behind Coco Gauff – current No. 4 and American No. 1.

For Elina Svitolina (No. 9) it will be her return to a WTA 1000 final – after a notable week in which she has shown why she deservedly recently returned to the top-10. The former world No. 3 knows what it is to play these stages from early in her career, winning three WTA 1000 titles nine years ago in 2017.

To date she has four titles in the category, remaining unbeaten in finals, including the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships 2017 – her first title in this category, in a week in which she defeated world No. 1 Angelique Kerber and No. 10 Caroline Wozniacki in the final.

It has been a more than positive week – and start of the year – for Svitolina. She got through her debut in the second round against Paula Badosa – in which the Spaniard retired due to injury after conceding the first set (6-4). Then she has faced several three-set battles, coming from behind to overcome Belinda Bencic and Antonia Ruzic – before advancing to her epic semi-final against Coco Gauff.

As in the quarter-finals of the Australian Open a few weeks ago, Svitolina ended up taking the victory, although this time it was an epic that we will surely remember for the rest of the season. Svitolina prevailed after more than three hours by 6-4, 6-7 (13), 6-4 with a particular 28-point tie-break in the second set, in which the Ukrainian squandered several match points.

Things were extended against Gauff, but finally Svitolina repeated the Melbourne triumph and returns to a final in Dubai – where she won the titles consecutively in 2017 and 2018. Since the introduction of the format, Svitolina has the longest gap for any player between two WTA 1000 finals (7 years, 277 days).

Few times do we see clashes between two players with the extensive experience of Pegula and Svitolina. It will be the first time that two players aged 30+ face each other in a final in Dubai, with 8 previous meetings between both players.

Pegula is the one who leads the head-to-head by 5-3, the first of them also in the Middle East – back in the 2021 Abu Dhabi Open, although at that moment the circumstances were very different for both players. While Svitolina quickly began in her career to rub shoulders with the best, Pegula had a later explosion, and has built her achievements especially in recent years, showing consistent improvement until establishing herself as a regular top-10 player in the last seasons.

Their last clash was at Indian Wells 2025 fourth round, in which they delivered a great battle and Svitolina took the victory coming back from a set down by 5-7, 6-1, 6-2.