{"id":489644,"date":"2026-02-21T09:39:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T09:39:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/489644\/"},"modified":"2026-02-21T09:39:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T09:39:08","slug":"tennis-wta-dubai-2026-elina-svitolina-battles-against-jessica-pegula-for-third-dubai-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/489644\/","title":{"rendered":"Tennis | WTA Dubai 2026 | Elina Svitolina battles against Jessica Pegula for third Dubai title"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Tony FairbairnJessica Pegula [4] v Elina Svitolina [7]H2H: Pegula leads 5-3DUBAI, UAE \u2013 Elina Svitolina battles Jessica Pegula in the Dubai final as the Ukrainian looks for a third title at the WTA 1000 event.<\/p>\n

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Jessica Pegula [4] v Elina Svitolina [7] H2H & Match Fundamentals <\/p>\n

A fifth consecutive win for Jessica Pegula <\/a>over Amanda Anisimova <\/a>saw the American into her first Dubai final as she continues her impressive post-US Open form. After some brutal defeats at latter stages of tournaments, Pegula will now aim to win a big title and put herself in a good position heading into the US swing. Standing in Pegula\u2019s way is Elina Svitolina <\/a>as the Ukrainian defeated Coco Gauff <\/a>in three sets to book her place in a third Dubai final of her career.<\/p>\n

Jessica Pegula [4] v Elina Svitolina [7] \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0H2H: Pegula leads 5-3 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0WTA Dubai 2026\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Dubai, UAE \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Hard (O)\u00a0Prize Money: $385,001\/$665,000Second on Centre Court (Not before 15:00 GMT) \u00a0Sky\/Now TV<\/a> <- Subscription Required<\/p>\n

Both players have defeated high-quality opponents in order to reach the final where WTA 1000 success awaits.<\/p>\n

Jessica Pegula [4] route to the final<\/p>\n

R1: BYE<\/p>\n

R2: Varvara Gracheva [Q] 6-4 6-0<\/p>\n

R3: Iva Jovic [16] 6-4 6-2<\/p>\n

QF: Clara Tauson [12] 6-3 2-6 6-4<\/p>\n

SF: Amanda Anisimova [2] 1-6 6-4 6-3<\/p>\n

Elina Svitolina [7] route to the final<\/p>\n

R1: BYE<\/p>\n

R2: Paula Badosa 6-4 RET<\/p>\n

R3: Belinda Bencic [9] 4-6 6-1 6-3<\/p>\n

QF: Antonia Ruzic [LL] 3-6 6-2 6-3<\/p>\n

SF: Coco Gauff [3] 6-4 6-7(13) 6-4<\/p>\n

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Tale of the Tape \u2013 Key Stats (Last 52 Weeks)H2H:Jessica Pegula (WR 5) \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Elina Svitolina (WR 9) \u00a0Tournament Previous BestSemi-Final (2023) \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Champion (2017, 2018) \u00a0\u00a01st Serve Return Points Won %40.339.1Return Points Won %46.846.1Break Point Conversion %45.950.8Break Point Saved %59.359.5Total Points Won %54.352.9<\/p>\n

Pegula has been the more consistently clinical player over the last 12 months but Svitolina\u2019s efficiency on break points shouldn\u2019t be dismissed heading into this blockbuster final.<\/p>\n

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Playing Styles and Prediction<\/p>\n

The impressive form of Pegula since the US Open continues as she is into the Dubai final after playing some consistently aggressive tennis.<\/p>\n

Now Pegula aims to turn that form into titles and send a big message of intent heading into the sunshine doubles.<\/p>\n

Ahead of the final Pegula previewed her clash with Svitolina as she said it will be an interesting battle of styles.<\/p>\n

\u201cElina, coming up on a year now since I played her,\u201d Pegula told the WTA website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe always have really tough matches. We play kind of similar styles. I think a little bit of counterpunching, but we can play aggressive. We\u2019re very solid, I think, off both wings.\u00a0I feel like with her, it\u2019s always a mix of trying to be aggressive, but not overplaying because she also moves pretty well and has some good defence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two-time champion Svitolina is up next for Pegula after the Ukrainian won a three set battle against Gauff.<\/p>\n

The Ukrainian continues to impress on the biggest stages and will now aim to back up her Australian Open semi-final with a title in Dubai.<\/p>\n

After her semi-final win, Svitolina admitted she is speechless and is hoping to recover well before the final.<\/p>\n

\u201cSpeechless after that fight,\u201d Svitolina explained to the WTA website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was really trying to put myself out there, and I was playing like there is no tomorrow, just trying to put all the effort in.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll do everything possible. Physios are here trying to help me speed up the recovery. Of course, it\u2019s not going to be easy. It\u2019s a final. It\u2019s important to give your everything.\u00a0I will do my very best to recover and really be there for this big final. For me, it\u2019s important just to keep fighting and trying to do everything that I can. We\u2019ll see how it goes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pegula will need to serve aggressively and will use her variety on the forehand to cause Svitolina problems.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Svitolina will aim to be aggressive on the returns in order to pin Pegula behind the baseline.<\/p>\n

This should be a classic final with both players have exceptional all-round games but Pegula\u2019s slightly more stable game and form puts her as favourite.<\/p>\n

Prediction: Pegula in three sets.<\/p>\n

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How to Watch\/Follow WTA Dubai 2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Tony FairbairnJessica Pegula [4] v Elina Svitolina [7]H2H: Pegula leads 5-3DUBAI, UAE \u2013 Elina Svitolina battles Jessica…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":489645,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,34302,35058,82,593,192899],"class_list":["post-489644","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-elina-svitolina","tag-jessica-pegula","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-wta-dubai"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489644","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=489644"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489644\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/489645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=489644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=489644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=489644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}