WTA 1000: Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championship Betting Preview
The Dubai Tennis Championships, also known as the Dubai Duty-Free Tennis Championships for sponsorship reasons, is an ATP/WTA tournament with the men’s and women’s draws taking place in consecutive weeks. While the men’s tournament doesn’t begin until February 26, the women’s tournament gets underway on February 18. Qualifying for the 56-player tournament began on Thursday.
Played on outdoor hard courts at the Aviation Club Tennis Centre in Dubai, UAE, the women’s tournament is the first of many WTA 1000 tennis events this season and, thus, features a loaded field with almost all of the top 20 ranked players in the world. Let’s take a look at the Dubai Duty-Free betting preview.
WTA Dubai Duty-Free History and Past Champions
The Dubai Duty-Free has alternated as a WTA 500 and WTA 1000 event in recent years but is a WTA 1000 event for the second consecutive year in 2024. Barbora Krejcikova won last year’s tournament, beating Iga Swiatek 6-4, 6-2 in the final. Other recent champions include Jelena Ostapenko (2022), Garbine Muguruza (2021), and Belinda Bencic (2019). Elina Svitolina won the Dubai Duty-Free betting preview in back-to-back years in 2017 and 2018.
The women’s tournament has been held every year since 2001, with Martina Hingis winning the inaugural championship. Some of the other winners include Justine Henin-Hardenne, who won four times from 2003 to 2007, Lindsay Davenport (2005), Caroline Wozniacki (2011), and Petra Kvitova (2013).
WTA Dubai Duty-Free Top 3 Seeds
Iga Swiatek
With a 56-player field, including four wildcards and eight qualifiers, Iga Swiatek and the second seed Aryna Sabalenka are the only two players to receive an automatic bye into the second round. Swiatek, the world No. 1, had a disappointing showing at the Australian Open, losing in a third-round upset to Linda Noskova. However, she appears to be rebounding in the Qatar Open as she is in the semi-finals and plays Karolina Pliskova on Friday.
Once strictly a clay court specialist, Swiatek has refined her game on other surfaces in recent years. She’s 10-1 on hard courts this season, including matches in the United Cup, and was an impressive 44-8 on outdoor hard courts in 2023.
Aryna Sabalenka
Sabalenka hasn’t played since winning the Australian Open for the second consecutive year. She had incredible tennis stats at the first grand slam of the year, winning every set in each of her seven matches. In fact, she only lost 31 games, which is just over four per match on average. Not surprisingly, Sabalenka should rival Swiatek in popular Dubai Duty-Free predictions as she also excels on hard courts.
Sabalenka, who also reached the final at the Brisbane International this year, is 11-1 this season, all on hard courts. She went 36-9 on the surface last year and has a career winning percentage of 71.95 on hard courts.
Coco Gauff
Coco Gauff hasn’t exactly built upon the momentum she earned by winning her first grand slam at the 2023 US Open. She did win the ASB Classic in early January, but has since lost in the semis to Sabalenka in the Australian Open and is coming off of a first-round loss to Katerina Siniakova at the Qatar Open. Unlike Sabalenka and Swiatek, she’ll have to play a first-round match in Dubai.
Other Players in the Draw
Fifteen of the top 20 players in the world will be in the mix for the Dubai Duty-Free betting preview. That includes Elena Rybakina, Ons Jabeur, Marketa Vondrousova, and Maria Sakkari. Krejcikova, last year’s champion and a former runner-up, is one of the few players to withdraw from the event, along with Jessica Pegula and Angelique Kerber.
WTA Dubai Final Betting Pick
Sabalenka is the hottest player in the sport right now but hasn’t played in a while, so it’ll be interesting to see how she performs. Given the first-round bye, she should be a clear favorite in the bottom half of the draw. The draw isn’t released yet, so it’s hard to know who she could meet in the final, but Ons Jabeur is another good outright bet for the Dubai Duty Free betting preview. The former world No. 2 is just 2-3 this season and is due to break out of her slump in a big way.
- Final Pick: Sabalenka def. Jabeur.
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