2025 Abu Dhabi Open WTA Draw With Rybakina, Raducanu, Badosa & More
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The draw for the 2025 Abu Dhabi Open has been released, and the fans at the WTA 500 event will have a lot to look forward to.
The Abu Dhabi Open starts the stretch of tournaments in the Middle East. After this event, officially called the Mubadala Abu Dhabi Open, because of sponsorship reasons, there are two WTA 1000 events held in Doha and Dubai.
In 2024, Elena Rybakina won the Abu Dhabi Open, and she will be the defending champion and the top seed this year. Although some top seeds, like Carlos Alcaraz in Rotterdam, don't have it easy, the opposite will apply to Rybakina in Abu Dhabi.
The Kazakhstani player has a first-round bye like all the first four seeded players, and in the second round, she will face one of the qualifiers. That's a very favorable draw for the top seed, who will want to forget her Australian Open disappointment and split from coach Goran Ivanisevic.
However, in the quarter-finals, Rybakina could play against the winner of the first-round blockbuster between the seventh-seeded Jelena Ostapenko and Ons Jabeur. The winner of this match will play against Yue Yuan or a qualifier in the second round.
The opposite side of the draw is much less star-studded. The second-seeded Paula Badosa has a first-round bye, and in the second round, the Spaniard will await either Linda Noskova or Magdalena Frech.
The third-seeded Daria Kasatkina also has a first-round bye. Her first opponent will be either Ashlyn Krueger or one of the qualifiers.
But there is another star-studded part in the first half of the draw. Yulia Putintseva might be the fourth seed and have a bye, but her second-round opponent will be a Grand Slam champion.
The Kazakhstani player will play against the winner of a first-round blockbuster between two wild cards, Marketa Vondrousova and Emma Raducanu, whose qualifying wild card was upgraded to a main draw wild card.
Another wild card, Belinda Bencic, was drawn on the line right under these two players. The Swiss player will take on Rebecca Sramkova. That will be an interesting match for both, as Bencic has Slovak roots, and Sramkova is a Slovak player.
There will be at least one more match of players with shared roots in Abu Dhabi. The fifth-seeded Liudmila Samsonova and Polina Kudermetova will meet in an all-Russian first-round match.
The last wild card recipient, Caroline Garcia, will play against Lulu Sun in the first round. The winner of this match will play against the winner of the match between Leylah Fernandez and Ekaterina Alexandrova.
2025 Abu Dhabi Open WTA Draw:
| Player 1 | Player 2 |
| Elena Rybakina [1] | Bye |
| Qualifier | Qualifier |
| Yue Yuan | Qualifier |
| Ons Jabeur | Jelena Ostapenko [7] |
| Yulia Putintseva [4] | Bye |
| Marketa Vondrousova [WC] | Emma Raducanu [WC] |
| Belinda Bencic [WC] | Rebecca Sramkova |
| Polina Kudermetova | Liudmila Samsonova [5] |
| Leylah Fernandez [8] | Ekaterina Alexandrova |
| Caroline Garcia | Lulu Sun |
| Qualifier | Ashlyn Krueger |
| Bye | Daria Kasatkina [3] |
| Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova [5] | Qualifier |
| Qualifier | Magda Linette |
| Magdalena Frech | Linda Noskova |
| Bye | Paula Badosa [2] |
