2025 Dubai Championships WTA Draw With Sabalenka, Gauff, Swiatek
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The draw for the 2025 Dubai Championships has been revealed. The top three seeded players will face a proper challenge at the WTA 1000 event.
Right after the conclusion of the Qatar Open in Doha, which is the first WTA 1000 event of the year, the second tournament of such category will start only a one-hour flight away from Doha, in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.
The 2025 Dubai Championships will run from February 16th until 22nd, and the draw for the event was once again ruthless to some of the players. One player who will certainly have nightmares after seeing the draw is the World No. 1 player, Aryna Sabalenka.
Sabalenka already lost in her first match in Doha. The player who beat her was Ekaterina Alexandrova. Now, the Belarusian can play Alexandrova in her first match again. The Russian player will start against a qualifier, and if she wins, she will set up yet another second-round meeting with Sabalenka.
On the opposite side of the draw, Iga Swiatek didn't get any luckier. The Polish player will meet the winner of the match between former World No. 1 Victoria Azarenka and Anhelina Kalinina.
And the third-seeded Coco Gauff didn't avoid a nightmare draw either. The American player will meet the winner of an all-American clash between McCartney Kessler and Amanda Anisimova in the second round. Anisimova made it to the final in Doha.
With the top three seeds likely rolling their eyes after seeing the draw, one woman certainly had a very big smile on her face after learning the draw. The fourth-seeded Jasmine Paolini will take on the winner of a match between two qualifiers in the second round.
But the top three seeds were not the only ones to have a challenging draw. For example, the seventh-seeded Qinwen Zheng will play against either Ons Jabeur or Peyton Stearns in the second round of the tournament.
The Dubai Championships is a WTA 1000 event, and the brutal draw for many seeded players just proves it. There is an incredible quality among the non-seeded players, and the sixth-seeded Elena Rybakina might feel it as well.
Her possible second-round opponent, Jelena Ostapenko, stunned Iga Swiatek in Doha and will play in the final of the WTA 1000 event in Qatar. The Latvian can, however, play against Rybakina already in the second round in Dubai.
Many other seeded players received similarly challenging draws. For example, the eighth-seeded Emma Navarro could play against Belinda Bencic, who won the Abu Dhabi Open just recently. The Dubai Championships simply promises another exciting week of tennis.
2025 Dubai Championships WTA Draw:
| Player 1 | Player 2 |
| Aryna Sabalenka [1] | BYE |
| Ekaterina Alexandrova | Qualifier |
| Rebecca Sramkova | Clara Tauson |
| Elina Svitolina | Anna Kalinskaya [15] |
| Diana Shnaider [11] | Magdalena Frech |
| Linda Noskova | Yulia Putintseva |
| Liudmila Samsonova | Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova |
| BYE | Jessica Pegula [5] |
| Coco Gauff [3] | BYE |
| McCartney Kessler | Amanda Anisimova |
| Maria Sakkari | Emma Raducanu |
| Qualifier | Karolina Muchova [14] |
| Daria Kasatkina [10] | Sorana Cirstea |
| Qualifier | Xinyu Wang |
| Belinda Bencic | Qualifier |
| BYE | Emma Navarro [8] |
| Elena Rybakina [6] | BYE |
| Qualifier | Jelena Ostapenko |
| Elise Mertens | Leylah Fernandez |
| Lulu Sun | Paula Badosa [9] |
| Donna Vekic [16] | Sofia Kenin |
| Qualifier | Marta Kostyuk |
| Qualifier | Qualifier |
| BYE | Jasmine Paolini [4] |
| Qinwen Zheng [7] | BYE |
| Ons Jabeur | Peyton Stearns |
| Marketa Vondrousova | Caroline Garcia |
| Elina Avanesyan | Mirra Andreeva [12] |
| Beatriz Haddad Maia [13] | Anastasia Potapova |
| Magda Linette | Dayana Yastremska |
| Victoria Azarenka | Anhelina Kalinina |
| BYE | Iga Swiatek [2] |
