On Saturday, February 8, Sara Bejlek of the Czech won her first-ever career WTA title after defeating second seed Ekaterina Alexandrova of Russia by sets of 7-6 (7/5), 6-1 in the finals match of the Abu Dhabi Open 2026. The match lasted for an hour and 39 minutes, which was Bejlek’s seventh win out of the eight matches played in the tournament. Meanwhile, the victory got the Czech player into the top 50 rank for the first time ever.
Before heading against the world No. 11 in the final, the Czech player first defeated former Roland Garros champion Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia in the second-round match. Her victory run later continued against Denmark’s No. 16 Clara Tauson in the semi-finals, defeating her by sets of 7-5, 3-6, 7-5. After claiming consecutive wins, the final match was the last stage of her challenge in the 500-level event that she achieved in two sets.
In the opening set, Bejlek got the lead at 4-3, but soon after Alexandrova asked for a medical time-out, and coming back after goes on to secure the lead by two points at 6-5. The Russian took the Czech into the tiebreaker but lost the round by 7-5. In the second set, Alexandrova struggled to dominate over Bejlek, who won the round in 30 minutes by 6-1.
The former Roland Garros junior doubles champion entered the tournament as No. 101 in the PIF WTA Rankings. She needed to win two qualifying matches to secure her second career WTA 500 main draw spot, but she made it to the finals and sealed the victory. After going against World No. 11 Alexandrova, Bejlek has doubled her career total of Top 20 wins.
Meanwhile, the Czech player is the second unseeded champion in Abu Dhabi, following Swiss player Belinda Bencic, who won the title last year as a wild card after returning from a lengthy pregnancy break. She is also the first Czech champion in the tournament.
Despite the loss, Alexandrova finished in the top 10 spot in the upcoming WTA rankings. Besides, her campaign at the Abu Dhabi Open was not all disappointing. She, along with Maya Joint, won the women’s doubles title after defeating the No. 4 pair of Tereza Mihalikova and Olivia Nicholls by sets of 3-6, 7-6(5), [10-8]. It took seven years for the Russian to win her first doubles title.
