A lackluster Middle East double tournament? Players like Rybakina shine as the final stars

The 2026 WTA1000 Doha tournament wrapped up, and Czech player Muchova secured her second career tour singles crown after 2019 Seoul. Following this week’s updated rankings, she moved up to 11th place, and the finalist Mboko broke into the world’s top ten for the first time.

Thanks to their impressive recent form, both players have advanced in the rankings. The doubles title at this event was won by Danilina and Krunic, last year’s Australian Open doubles runners-up. The pair have shown excellent chemistry and form this season, performing strongly in multiple major tournaments.

With the Doha event just finished, the next WTA1000 tournament in Dubai has already begun. Although still a high-level event, this year’s Dubai lineup is quite average. The extensive withdrawal list reveals that many well-known players, including world No. 2 Sabalenka and Swiatek, as well as Zheng Qinwen, Muchova, Naomi Osaka, Keys, Sakkari, Van Uytvanck, and Wang Xinyu, have all pulled out of the competition.

Among them, current world No. 1 Sabalenka withdrew from both Doha and Dubai consecutively, opting instead to participate directly in the North American Sunshine double tournaments in March after the Australian Open.

The mass withdrawal of top players has lowered expectations for the seeded lineup. The top four seeds at this tournament are Rybakina, Anisimova, Gauff, and Pegula. The Dubai tournament director expressed strong dissatisfaction, stating that these stars do not care about the fines imposed for skipping the event.

The tournament director even suggested that points should be directly deducted (for example, by 500 or even 1000 points) instead of imposing fines. If such measures were implemented, many players would likely reconsider withdrawing, as every point is hard-earned and rankings directly affect seedings in draws.

Of course, this is just the Dubai director’s angry statement. The tournament has already completed some first-round women’s singles matches. In some notable matches, this year’s new Abu Dhabi champion, playing as a wildcard, defeated another wildcard, Senmez, in the first round. Mertens also won her opening match 6-2, 6-2 against Bozková.

Additionally, 10th seed Noskova beat Li Jini; Ierlano advanced after Battist retired while trailing 6-4, 0-1; and Rinnet battled through three sets to defeat Australian player Sun Lulu.

It is worth mentioning that although no Chinese players appeared in the singles draw at this year’s Dubai event, players like Zhang Shuai competed in doubles. Zhang partnered with Mertens as the tournament’s second seeds in the bottom half, while Xu Yifan and Yang Zhaoxuan lost in the first round to Perez and Struijs.(Source: Tennis Home, Author: Barbie)