The Middle East swing got under way last week on the WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz with the Mubadala Abu Dhabi Open 500 event — which for the second year in a row, was won by a player ranked outside the Top 100.

Last year, No. 157-ranked Belinda Bencic kickstarted her comeback from maternity leave by winning the tournament as a wild card. This year, No. 101-ranked Sara Bejlek went all the way from qualifying to her first career title.

Bejlek turned 20 on Jan. 31, the day she won her first qualifying match in Abu Dhabi. Eight days and seven wins later — including her first two Top 20 victories, over Clara Tauson in the semifinals and Ekaterina Alexandrova in the final — she stood as the champion.

Bejlek is the first qualifier to win a WTA 500 (or above) title since Tatjana Maria at Queen’s last year, and the lowest-ranked WTA 500 champion since Marketa Vondrousova (ranked No. 164 when she won Berlin last year). She’s the fifth-youngest current WTA titlist, joining 2006-born peers Victoria Mboko and Maya Joint and 2007-born Mirra Andreeva and Iva Jovic.

Bejlek soars 63 places to make her Top 50 debut at No. 38 — becoming the first player to climb from outside the Top 100 straight into the Top 50 in a single jump since Amanda Anisimova in August 2024. After several years of bubbling under, Bejlek’s rise has sped up over the past year.

She first cracked the Top 200 as a 16-year-old in 2022, and qualified for six Grand Slam main draws between 2022 and 2025 despite playing a relatively light schedule each season. Last year, however, she won three WTA 125 titles in Makarska, Rende and Queretaro, enabling her to break into the Top 100 in October.

New career highs for Oliynykova, Baptiste

Last year’s expanded WTA 125 circuit is proving its worth in foreshadowing higher-level results this season. Bejlek’s not the only player who’s hit the tour-level ground running after using WTA 125 results to crack the Top 100 in 2025. Like Bejlek, Oleksandra Oliynykova won a tour-leading three WTA 125 trophies last season, and the Ukrainian’s already turning heads with her game and results in 2026.

In just her second WTA main draw, Oliynykova went all the way to the Cluj-Napoca semifinals last week, posting her first Top 50 win over Wang Xinyu in the quarterfinals. In the last four, she stretched former US Open champion Emma Raducanu all the way in a riveting 2-hour, 48-minute match. 

The variety in her game — and the flair with which Oliynykova plays — has made her a crowd favorite. So has the way the 25-year-old has spoken about living and training in an active war zone in Kyiv.

With a 20-place rise from No. 91 to No. 71 this week, Oliynykova is entrenching her position in the Top 100.

Meanwhile in Abu Dhabi, Hailey Baptiste also reached her first career semifinal, a run that included her fourth and fifth career Top 20 wins over Emma Navarro and Liudmila Samsonova. The 24-year-old American climbs 17 places from No. 56 to No. 39.

Cirstea, Boulter boosted following titles

Last week’s pair of WTA 250 champions both won a trophy for the fourth time in their careers. In Cluj-Napoca, Sorana Cirstea continued her strong form in the final year of her career by winning her first title on home soil — and without dropping a set all week.

The 35-year-old — whose first title came 18 years ago at Tashkent 2008 — became the third Romanian player to capture a title in their home country, following Simona Halep (Bucharest 2014, Bucharest 2016) and Irina-Camelia Begu (Bucharest 2017, Iasi 2025).

It also marks the first time that Cirstea, last year’s Cleveland champion, has held multiple titles in the same 12-month span — all the more remarkable considering that she was ranked No. 166 as recently as July following foot surgery in 2024. The former No. 21 climbs five places this week from No. 36 to No. 31.

Meanwhile, Katie Boulter bounced back from a two-and-a-half month spell outside the Top 100 by taking the title in Ostrava — the lowest ranked champion of 2026 at No. 120. The 29-year-old returns to the Top 100 this week with a 36-spot jump to No. 84.

Last week’s WTA 250 runners-up both reached their second career finals after a gap of several years. Four years and five months after winning the 2021 US Open as a qualifier, Emma Raducanu made the Cluj-Napoca final as the No. 1 seed. Alongside Boulter’s run in Czechia, it marked the first time two British women had reached a WTA final in the same week since Boulter defeated Jodie Burrage in an all-British final at Nottingham 2023. Raducanu, 23, moves up five places to No. 25.

Tamara Korpatsch, the 2023 Cluj-Napoca champion, thrived again indoors by making the Ostrava final. Former No. 71 Korpatsch is on the brink of returning to the Top 100 for the first time since July 2024, rising 24 places to No. 102 this week.

Sawangkaew, Tagger make moves after WTA 125 success

Twelve months ago, Mananchaya Sawangkaew reached her first career WTA 125 final at Mumbai 2025 — a key showing in the Thai player’s rise into the Top 100 by June last year. But she was sidelined for the last six months of 2025 with a back injury, only returning to action in December.

Sawangkaew has hit the ground running, though — her record this year is now 11-2 after returning to Mumbai and going one better to lift her first WTA 125 trophy. The 23-year-old climbs 24 places to No. 212.

The Mumbai runner-up was 17-year-old Lilli Tagger, the Fujairah ITF W100 champion the previous week whose nine-match winning streak was only stopped by Sawangkaew. Reigning Roland Garros junior champion and Jiujiang 2025 finalist Tagger continues her rapid rise toward the Top 100, climbing 13 places to a new career high of No. 115.

Other notable rankings movements

Ekaterina Alexandrova, +1 to No. 10: Alexandrova reached her 13th career final in Abu Dhabi and returns to the Top 10 for the first time since the start of the season.

Alexandra Eala, +5 to No. 40: Eala is up to a new career high after making the Abu Dhabi quarterfinals, a run that included a remarkable comeback from 4-0 down in the third set over Aliaksandra Sasnovich in the second round.

Sonay Kartal, +11 to No. 50: British No. 2 Kartal reached the Abu Dhabi quarterfinals as a qualifier, and returns to the Top 50 for the first time since September.

Simona Waltert, +13 to No. 81: The 25-year-old Swiss player is up to a new career high after upsetting Daria Kasatkina to reach the Abu Dhabi second round as a qualifier.

Diane Parry, +12 to No. 107: Parry reached her first tour-level semifinal since Osaka 2024 in Ostrava last week.

Daria Snigur, +21 to No. 123: Snigur reached her first WTA semifinal last week in Cluj-Napoca. Along with compatriot Oliynykova’s run, it marked the first time that two Ukrainians had reached the semifinals of a WTA tournament since the country’s independence in 1991.

Maja Chwalinska, +12 to No. 134: The 24-year-old Pole made her first tour-level quarterfinal last week in Cluj-Napoca via an upset of Olga Danilovic in the second round.

Kayla Day, +23 to No. 195: Former No. 84 Day underwent ankle surgery in December 2024, returning to action in April 2025. She’s won two ITF titles this year already, including at last week’s Orlando ITF W50, and the 26-year-old American is back in the Top 200 this week.

Fiona Crawley, +25 to No. 202: University of North Carolina alumna Crawley captured her first ITF W50 title last week in Porto, and the 24-year-old American rises to a new career high.

Julia Avdeeva, +50 to No. 211: Avdeeva, 23, has compiled a 9-1 record this year so far, reaching the Leszno ITF W75 final and then winning last week’s Andrézieux-Bouthéon ITF W75 title — the fourth of her career at that level.

Elizara Yaneva, +27 to No. 233: The 18-year-old Bulgarian owns a 15-4 record in 2026 after reaching the final in three of her four tournaments so far, including at last week’s Porto ITF W50. Yaneva, who only broke into the Top 400 for the first time three months ago, is up to another new career high.

Fiona Ferro, +40 to No. 241: Former No. 39 Ferro qualified and reached the second round in Ostrava.

Veronika Podrez, +34 to No. 250: The 19-year-old Ukrainian enters the Top 250 for the first time after reaching the Andrézieux-Bouthéon ITF W75 final last week.

Tian Fangran, +48 to No. 277: Tian, the 2023 NCAA singles champion, reached her first WTA 125 semifinal in Mumbai last week. The Chinese 22-year-old breaks into the Top 300 for the first time.

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