WTA Dubai: Ella Causes a Major Upset by Defeating Paolini, Defending Champion Andreyeva Advances via Opponent's Withdrawal

On February 17 local time, the 2026 WTA1000 Dubai tournament continued with the women's singles second round, featuring all top eight seeds. The biggest surprise of the day came from Filipino player Ella, who battled for 100 minutes to beat the defending champion and sixth seed Paolini 6-1, 7-6(5), advancing strongly.

Ella

Ella has shown clear progress this season, reaching the semifinals of the WTA250 Auckland event where she lost to Chinese player Wang Xinyu; moving to the Middle East, she defeated Semenz and Sasnovich to reach the quarterfinals of the WTA500 Abu Dhabi tournament. In this event’s first round, Ella advanced when Baptiste retired while she led 6-4, 0-1. In the second round against Paolini, she took the first set in just 24 minutes at 6-1; although she missed three match points at 5-3/40-15 in the second set and saved two set points herself, she ultimately won the tiebreak 7-6(5).

This marks Ella’s third career victory over a top 10 player; last year in Miami, she eliminated Keys and Swiatek to reach the semifinals. After earning 120 ranking points and $49,250 in prize money, Ella’s live ranking jumped to No. 39, with a strong chance to break into the top 40 for the first time next week. Paolini has struggled this season with a 3-4 record and has suffered three consecutive losses since her upset exit in the third round of the Australian Open.

In other matches, top seed Rybakina crushed qualifier Burel 6-1, 6-2; third seed Gauff defeated last year’s finalist Kalinskaya 6-4, 6-4; fourth seed Pegula dominated qualifier Grachova 6-4, 6-0. Fifth seed Andreyeva, seventh seed Svitolina, and ninth seed Bencic all advanced due to their opponents’ withdrawals. Meanwhile, eighth seed Alexandrova was eliminated by Rinnet 2-6, 6-4, 1-6.

WTA1000 Dubai Schedule for February 18

(Written and edited by: Dato, Photos: Visual China)