{"id":98076,"date":"2026-02-16T18:30:22","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T23:30:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/?p=98076"},"modified":"2026-02-16T18:30:22","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T23:30:22","slug":"wta-dubai-best-bets-gauff-vs-kalinskaya","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2026\/02\/16\/wta-dubai-best-bets-gauff-vs-kalinskaya\/","title":{"rendered":"WTA Dubai Best Bets Including Coco Gauff vs Anna Kalinskaya"},"content":{"rendered":"

The second round of action at WTA Dubai promises quality action up and down the match card. The vast majority of the matches in the second round feature fairly close odds between the two participants, except for four matches with 3-1 or higher odds. LWOS is here to provide you with odds on select matches. Please leave your thoughts and match bets in the comment section.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

WTA Dubai<\/b><\/h2>\n

Badosa <\/b>\u2013 Svitolina<\/b>: Time 12:30<\/b><\/h4>\n

H2H: 0-2<\/b><\/p>\n

Paula Badosa vs Elina Svitolina is a meeting of two top-70 players in the World. Svitolina is off to a wonderful start in 2026. Not only did she win her first tournament in Auckland, but she also made the semifinals at the WTA Australian Open, and then the round of 16 at WTA Doha. Badosa is not having the best start to the year, at 3-4 overall. She has yet to win more than a single match in any tournament.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Best Bet to Make<\/b><\/p>\n

The books have Svitolina as the favorite, and I agree. Badosa lacks the type of consistency you expect from someone who was once the no. 2 player in the World. She’s coming off a 19-14 season that was rife with injuries. This was supposed be her chance to show people she has returned to form. Well, she hasn’t. Every match these two have played has gone to a third set, but I like the over on 21.5 games more than taking a correct score bet. Even taking Svitolina straight up isn’t worth it at 1.5 at the highest.<\/p>\n

That being said, Over 21.5 games<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/b><\/span>is a value bet for sure.<\/b><\/p>\n

Value bet\/the best odds: Over 21.5 games<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>@1.93 <\/b>@bet-at-home<\/b><\/p>\n

Eala <\/b>\u2013 Paolini<\/b>: Time 17:30<\/b><\/p>\n

H2H: 0-0<\/b><\/p>\n

Alexandra Eala meets Jasmine Paolini for the first time in her career. Eala is 9-5 to start her season, with two quarterfinal appearances and one semifinal appearance. She has also been one-and-done in her four other tournaments. Paolini has had a rough start to her year. She lost her second-round match to Maria Sakkari at WTA Doha, was dumped out of the WTA Australian Open by Iva Jovic in the third round, and split her United Cup matches, in which she was the favorite both times.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Best Bet to Make<\/b><\/p>\n

The books have Paolini as a 2.57-1.5 favorite, on average. It makes sense since Paolini won this very tournament in 2024, and she’s the higher-rated player. Eala, however, is known for defeating higher-ranked players. She hasn’t done that in 2026, though. For whatever reason, Eala has struggled to take flight this year. This match is as good a chance as she’s going to have to prove she deserves her current World ranking (no. 47), and that she can also win WTA-level tournaments, as she only has one title thus far. Play this match safely and take Paolini straight.<\/p>\n

That being said,\u00a0 Paolini winning<\/strong><\/b>\u00a0<\/strong><\/b><\/span>is a value bet for sure.<\/b><\/p>\n

Value bet\/the best odds: Paolini winning<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>@1.5 @Pinnacle<\/b><\/p>\n

Gauff <\/b>\u2013 <\/b>Kalinskaya<\/b><\/b>: Time 11:00<\/b><\/h4>\n

H2H: 0-1<\/b><\/p>\n

Coco Gauff vs Anna Kalinskaya is our featured match. Kalinskaya is a former finalist here at WTA Dubai. That occurred in 2024. Gauff has made semifinal and two quarterfinal appearances in Dubai, but she’s also been eliminated in rounds 1 and 2. So far in 2026, Gauff is 7-3, and Kalinskaya is 8-4. Their only previous match was a quarterfinal match here in Dubai back in 2024. Kalinskaya won that match in three sets.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Best Bet to Make<\/b><\/p>\n

Even with the prior WTA Dubai win on her record, Gauff is still a 1.49-2.61 favorite. Most of the books agree that Gauff will win this match, but that the match itself ought to be entertaining. While the under on 2.5 sets is set at 1.56 on Unibet, the books seem to agree that 21.5 games is where the match becomes a push. Use that information as you will, but I think Gauff winning 2:0 at 2.2 on bet365 is where I would spend my dollars.<\/p>\n

That being said, Gauff winning 2:0<\/strong><\/b>\u00a0<\/strong><\/b><\/span>is a value bet for sure.<\/b><\/p>\n

Value bet\/the best odds: Gauff winning 2:0<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>@2.2 <\/b>@bet365<\/b><\/p>\n

Main Photo Credit: Susan Mullane–USA TODAY Sports<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The second round of action at WTA Dubai promises quality action up and down the match card. The vast majority of the matches in the second round feature fairly close odds between the two participants, except for four matches with 3-1 or higher odds. LWOS is here to provide you with odds on select matches. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5481,"featured_media":85459,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_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":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17400,4],"tags":[16553,7645,17399,2747,394,5319,12171,15,4724],"class_list":["post-98076","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-best-bets","category-wta","tag-alexandra-eala","tag-anna-kalinskaya","tag-best-bets","tag-coco-gauff","tag-elina-svitolina","tag-jasmine-paolini","tag-paula-badosa","tag-wta","tag-wta-dubai"],"modified_by":"Kane Webb","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98076","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\/5481"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98076"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98076\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":98086,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98076\/revisions\/98086"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}