Dubai Tennis Championships 411: Dates, players and everything else you need to know
The Middle East swing concludes with the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, the second WTA 1000 tournament in as many weeks.
Following the Qatar TotalEnergies Open in Doha, the top players in the world will have another opportunity to rack up significant rankings points and prize money before the WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz heads to North America for the Sunshine swing.
Below is everything you need to know about the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, from dates and players to rankings points and prize money.
When does the tournament start and end?
Qualifying action kicks off on Friday, Feb. 13, and main-draw singles and doubles play starts on Sunday, Feb. 15. The one-week tournament will run through Saturday, Feb. 21.
The doubles final will be played at 4:30 p.m. local time on Feb. 21, and the singles final will follow.
The tournament is played on outdoor hard courts at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Stadium, in the Aviation Club Tennis Centre.
How big are the fields?
The singles draw features 56 players, including 43 direct entries, eight qualifiers, four wild cards and one Special Exempt spot. The top eight seeds will receive byes into the second round.
The doubles draw features 28 teams.
The main draw will be announced on Saturday, Feb. 14 at 1 p.m. local time.
Who is playing?
Every player in the Top 10 in the PIF WTA Rankings will be in Dubai. Of particular note is World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka, who returns after withdrawing from Doha. Jessica Pegula will also be back in action after not playing the first WTA 1000 tournament of 2026.
Also scheduled to return in Dubai is Belinda Bencic, who got sick in Abu Dhabi and wasn't in Doha, and Australian Open quarterfinalist Iva Jovic.
The most notable omission is Madison Keys, now No. 16 in the world, who's recovering from an injury. Naomi Osaka, Marta Kostyuk Eva Lys, and Marketa Vondrousova also withdrew from the tournament with injuries.
Filipina sensation Alexandra Eala has moved into the main draw after American McCartney Kessler pulled out with a lower back injury.
What are the rankings points and prize money at stake?
Like in Doha, there will be $4,088,211 in prize money at stake at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships.
Below is a full breakdown of the prize money and rankings points at play in the singles draw.
Champion: $665,000 | 1,000 points
Runner-up: $385,001 | 650 points
Semifinalists: $197,000 | 390 points
Quarterfinalists: $98,500 | 215 points
Round of 16: $49,250 | 120 points
Round of 32: $26,000 | 65 points
Round of 56: $18,300 | 10 points
The doubles champions will earn $195,000, and the runners-up will take home $110,010.
Who are the defending champions?
Mirra Andreeva, who's in this year's draw, won the biggest title of her career last year in Dubai. (She followed that up with another WTA 1000 title, in Indian Wells, a few weeks later.) Then just 17, Andreeva became the youngest WTA 1000 champion ever, and the title catapulted her into the Top 10.
Andreeva blitzed through the draw, dropping just one set all week and beating Iga Swiatek, Elena Rybakina and Clara Tauson in her last three matches.
Other past champions in this year's draw are Jasmine Paolini (2024), Barbora Krejcikova (2023), Bencic (2019) and Elina Svitolina, who won it in both 2017 and 2018.
Sara Errani, who is in this year's doubles draw, won the singles title back in 2016.
The reigning doubles champions are Katerina Siniakova and Taylor Townsend. They defeated Jelena Ostapenko and Hsieh Su-wei in last year's final.
Ostapenko and Hsieh are returning as a pairing this year. Siniakova is back as well, playing with Australian Storm Hunter. Townsend isn't in the draw.