Dubai semifinal preview: Building the case for three Americans and Svitolina

Three Americans -- good friends and all ranked among the WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz Top 10 -- headline Friday’s semifinals at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships. It’s been a quarter century since three players from the same country advanced to the semifinals in Dubai.

No. 2 seed Amanda Anisimova meets No. 4 Jessica Pegula (5 p.m. local time, 8 a.m. ET), followed by No. 3 Coco Gauff against No. 7 Elina Svitolina -- a Top 10 player herself. The winners will play Saturday to determine the champion of the season’s second WTA 1000 event.

If these seem like familiar matchups, it’s not your imagination. Both semifinals are rematches from the 2026 Australian Open quarterfinals played less than one month ago.

Here’s a closer look at Friday’s action from the Aviation Club Tennis Centre.

No. 3 Coco Gauff vs. No. 7 seed Elina Svitolina

Head-to-head: 2-2.

After an impressive 6-0, 6-2 winner over Alexandra Eala, Gauff admitted she was surprised to be in Dubai’s final four.

“But sometimes one match can change everything,” she said in her on-court interview.

Indeed, Gauff has a history of winning matches, even when not playing her best. She had been scuffling, losing her first match in Doha to lucky loser Elisabetta Cocciaretto and saving three match points against Elise Mertens in Dubai’s round of 16.

Gauff’s serve remains a work in progress. She had 16 double faults against Mertens and, with 36, the most in this event. Gauff was better against Eala, with eight, but this still bears watching. While her serve and forehand have been under scrutiny, Gauff’s defense and serve return have been terrific. 

She broke Eala six times and has won a tournament-high 19 break points. Gauff’s relentless retrieving led to 33 unforced errors by Eala, many of them mistakes tied to frustration.

Meanwhile, Svitolina came back to defeat lucky loser Antonia Ruzic 3-6, 6-2, 6-3. The 31-year-old from Ukraine saved 11 of 14 break points against her and scored five service breaks against Ruzic.

Svitolina is a two-time Dubai champion, winning the title in 2017 and 2018.

“I have great memories,” she said in her on-court interview. “Coming back to this special place, I’m really, really pleased to be in the semifinals again.”

Svitolina doubtless has great memories of her most recent match against Gauff -- 24 days ago -- 6-1, 6-2 in Melbourne. 

“She played well that match, she definitely did, but I also feel like I beat myself up a little bit,” Gauff said. “I can learn from that when I'm maybe starting the match off slow, how to combat that.

“I feel like these last couple matches I haven't started off the best and was able to do that.”

Gauff will need to clean up her serve. She won only 41 percent of her first-serve points, compared to 71 percent for Svitolina.

No. 2 Amanda Anisimova vs. No. 4 Jessica Pegula

Head-to-head: 4-0, Pegula.

That head-to-head record might be deceptive because three of those matches came before last year’s breakthrough that saw Anisimova reach back-to-back Grand Slam finals. Their last match came a little over three weeks ago, and Pegula needed a tiebreak to prevail 6-2, 7-6 (1).

"Just played her in Australia -- I've played her many times,” Pegula told reporters. “We have had a lot of really close matches. It will be interesting to see.”

Anisimova showed some moxie in these quarterfinals, coming back to defeat No. 5 Mirra Andreeva 2-6, 7-5, 7-6 (4). It was Anisimova’s first comeback of the year and ended Andreeva’s hopes of defending her title here. Anisimova has developed a habit of beating WTA 1000 reigning champions -- this is her third such win, second only to Svetlana Kuznetsova in the 17 years they’ve been playing these premier events.

Anisimova, who has a game built on sturdy groundstrokes, went to net 25 times against Andreeva, trying to nullify her superb defense. 

“I felt like I was trying different things, like dropshots, coming into the net, trying to use the court as much as I can because, yeah, otherwise I don't think that the point would finish if I just kept hitting the ball,” Anisimova explained. “It's something I've also tried to get better at and improve in, is my net play. I feel like I can play well at the net if I commit to it.”

That emerging strategy might be just the thing to reverse her disappointing history against Pegula, who defeated No. 12 Clara Tauson 6-3, 2-6, 6-4. The 31-year-old advanced to her seventh straight WTA Tour-level semifinal, a streak that dates back to last year’s US Open. Pegula is the first WTA Tour player since Agnieszka Radwanska (2015-16) to do that.

“I think I've been serving a lot better,” Pegula said. “Physically been feeling good. Moving better again. I think I had a little bit of a chronic knee thing that's been back and forth since probably over a year ago.

“There's a lot of things. But honestly [I've] been working on my game a lot. I think I've become a better player over the last six months.”