Jessica Pegula says 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 securing her first title of the year with a 6-2 6-4 win over Ukrainian seventh seed Svitolina in Dubai on Saturday.
Pegula said her victory in the final – her tenth WTA title – came after reaching seven consecutive semi-finals on the Tour.
“I can’t ask for much more. Over the past six months I have been playing very good tennis,” she said.
“I made it to seven consecutive semi-finals and I thought, ‘You know what, a title would be nice, 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 turns 32 on February 24.
Svitolina came into the match perhaps feeling the aftereffects of defeating Coco Gauff the previous day in an epic three-hour encounter, as Pegula immediately took control.
Pegula raced into an early double break and despite some resistance from Svitolina, wrapped up the first set when the Ukrainian went into the net.
In the second set, Pegula’s deep, angular strokes continued to force Svitolina, who triumphed in Dubai in 2017 and 2018, into mistakes.
Svitolina saved one championship point on serve, but was powerless to avoid defeat in the next game when Pegula sealed the title with an ace.
The win made Pegula the third American to win in Dubai, following Lindsay Davenport and three-time champion Venus Williams.
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