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 had 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 10th WTA title – was due after reaching seven successive semi-finals on the Tour.
“I can’t ask for much more. The last six months I’ve been playing some really good tennis,” she said.
“I made seven consecutive semi-finals and I was like, ‘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”, with the world number five set to turn 32 on 24 February.
Svitolina came into the match perhaps feeling the after-effects of beating Coco Gauff the previous day in an epic three-hour encounter, as Pegula took control immediately.
Pegula sped into an early double break, and despite some resistance from Svitolina, went on to wrap up the first set as the Ukrainian went into the net.
In the second set, Pegula’s deep, angled hitting 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 prevent defeat in the next game as Pegula sealed the title with an ace.
The win saw Pegula become the third American to win in Dubai after Lindsay Davenport and three-time champion Venus Williams.
