Swiatek leads strong fields for February's Middle East events

Robust fields are headed to the Middle East in February, as the entries for WTA 500 events in Doha and Abu Dhabi and the WTA 1000 tournament in Dubai begin to come into focus.

Nine of the Top 10 ranked players on the Hologic WTA Tour are signed up for the 500 Qatar TotalEnergies Open in Doha, with main-draw play taking place Feb. 13-18. Defending champion and World No.1 Iga Swiatek, winner of two Grand Slam titles last season, tops the lineup.

“It is a great privilege to have almost all the top players confirmed for the Qatar TotalEnergies Open once again," Tournament Director Saad Al Mohannadi said. "Their desire to be a part of this tournament is a further confirmation of the reputation it has garnered over the years, the recognition of the organization, and the maximum attention to detail everyone involved in the tournament has always put into it."

World No.2 Ons Jabeur, No.3 Jessica Pegula, No.4 Caroline Garcia and No.5 Aryna Sabalenka (the 2020 Doha champion) make a clean sweep of the Top 5 entered in Doha.

Coco Gauff, Daria Kasatkina, Veronika Kudermetova and Belinda Bencic round out the Top 10 entrants. Jelena Ostapenko and two-time Doha champion Petra Kvitova are other Grand Slam champions entered into the main-draw field.

Jabeur, Kasatkina, Kudermetova, Bencic and Ostapenko will be coming to Doha from Abu Dhabi, where they are among the entrants scheduled to contest the WTA 500 Mubadala Abu Dhabi Open the week before the event in Qatar.

Abu Dhabi returns to the WTA calendar after its debut appearance in 2021. Main-draw play will take place from Feb. 6-12.

The field is also taking shape for the WTA 1000 Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, where main-draw play takes place Feb. 19-25.

All of the world's current Top 10 players -- those listed above and adding No.6 Maria Sakkari -- are on the initial entry list for the 56-player main draw in Dubai.

Grand Slam titlists Ostapenko (the defending Dubai champion), Kvitova, Elena Rybakina, Victoria Azarenka, Bianca Andreescu and Barbora Krejcikova, as well as former World No.1 Karolina Pliskova, are among the other players on the entry list.