{"id":97478,"date":"2026-02-06T19:13:46","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T00:13:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/?p=97478"},"modified":"2026-02-07T01:04:56","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T06:04:56","slug":"wta-abu-dhabi-final-prediction-ekaterina-alexandrova-vs-sara-bejlek","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2026\/02\/06\/wta-abu-dhabi-final-prediction-ekaterina-alexandrova-vs-sara-bejlek\/","title":{"rendered":"WTA Abu Dhabi Final Prediction: Ekaterina Alexandrova vs Sara Bejlek"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Middle East swing has once again offered an important early-season test on the WTA calendar, with Abu Dhabi producing a week of strong performances and breakthrough results. The final brings together an established hard-court player and a rising young talent who has built momentum through qualifying and the main draw. As always, we here at LWOT give our predictions and analysis in this article, but who will lift the trophy?<\/span><\/p>\n

WTA Abu Dhabi Final Prediction\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

Ekaterina Alexandrova vs Sara Bejlek<\/span><\/h4>\n

Head-to-Head:<\/strong> first meeting\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

These two have never met at tour level, making recent form, hard-court pedigree, and their routes to the final the clearest indicators heading into this matchup.<\/span><\/p>\n

Alexandrova came into 2026 following a strong finish last season, highlighted by her first WTA 500 title in Linz along with several deep runs. Her start to this year was uneven, but she has found her level in Abu Dhabi. She owns five WTA titles and has produced notable hard-court results, including a semifinal run in Miami and a quarterfinal appearance in Wuhan. Her game is built around flat, aggressive groundstrokes and strong returning, allowing her to dictate points early.<\/span><\/p>\n

Her path to the final began with a bye, followed by commanding straight-set wins over Dayana Yastremska and Alexandra Eala, conceding just six games across both matches. The semifinal against Hailey Baptiste proved tougher, with Alexandrova saving a match point before securing a win in three sets, showing strong composure under pressure.<\/span><\/p>\n

Bejlek has delivered one of the standout runs of the tournament. The 20-year-old qualifier is playing her first WTA final after winning three WTA 125 titles last season, including a hard-court title in Quer\u00e9taro. Although clay has been her most successful surface, she has adapted well to hard courts with solid movement and consistent baseline play.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\n

Her run started in qualifying with wins over Ekaterina Ovcharenko and Chloe Paquet. She then defeated Ashlyn Krueger before recording impressive straight-set victories over Jelena Ostapenko and Sonay Kartal. Her third set semifinal win over Clara Tauson highlighted her ability to handle long, physical matches.<\/span><\/p>\n

Bejlek\u2019s confidence and rally tolerance could keep this competitive, but Alexandrova\u2019s experience, serving strength, and history of success on hard courts should help her manage the biggest moments.<\/span><\/p>\n

Prediction: Alexandrova in 2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Main Photo Credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Middle East swing has once again offered an important early-season test on the WTA calendar, with Abu Dhabi producing a week of strong performances and breakthrough results. The final brings together an established hard-court player and a rising young talent who has built momentum through qualifying and the main draw. As always, we here […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4590,"featured_media":60824,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[4184,15526,18103,18104,2373,2369,13393,13453,2374,4935],"class_list":["post-97478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-predictions","tag-ekaterina-alexandrova","tag-ekaterina-alexandrova-predictions","tag-sara-bejlek","tag-sara-bejlek-predictions","tag-tennis-picks","tag-tennis-predictions","tag-wta-abu-dhabi","tag-wta-abu-dhabi-predictions","tag-wta-picks","tag-wta-predictions"],"modified_by":"Steen Kirby","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4590"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97478"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97478\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97496,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97478\/revisions\/97496"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60824"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}