2025 WTA Dubai draw: Emma Raducanu and Aryna Sabalenka set to face familiar opponents

Shahida Jacobs 15 Feb 2025 1:37 PM

Emma Raducanu plays a shot

There is good news and bad news for Emma Raducanu after the Dubai Tennis Championships draw while Aryna Sabalenka could get a chance to exact revenge on her recent conqueror.

Raducanu will face Maria Sakkari in the first round of the WTA 1000 event with the Greek 31 places higher than her in the ranking but on the flip side, the Brit has won their only two encounters to date.

Both Raducanu and Sakkari have struggled so far this season as the former is 2-4 in 2025 having lost her last four matches while the former world No 3 is 4-7.

But they will both get a chance to bounce back in the first round in the United Arab Emirates in what will be their third career meeting.

Raducanu won their first-ever encounter during her astonishing 2021 US Open title run when she became the first qualifier to win a major. On that occasion, she defeated the Greek 6-1, 6-4 in the semi-final while last year she won 6-2, 6-3 in the round of 32 at Wimbledon.

The pair are in section 2 of the top half of the draw and the winner will face either 14th seed Karolina Muchova or a qualifier in the second round while third seed Coco Gauff is the projected third-round opponent.

Gauff kicks off her campaign against either McCartney Kessler or Amanda Anisimova with the latter in good form after reaching the final in Qatar.

Eighth seed Emma Navarro is the other top-ranked player in the section and she will face either Belinda Bencic or a qualifier first up.

The section 2 winner will likely meet Sabalenka in the semi-final, but the world No 1 could have a tricky opener as she could face Ekaterina Alexandrova in the second round.

Alexandrova stunned Sabalenka in the same round in Qatar and also beat sixth seed Jessica Pegula in the quarter-final before losing against Anisimova in the last four.

And there is another chance of a Sabalenka/Alexandrova meeting with Pegula as the world No 6 is also in Section 1 and is projected to meet 15th seed Daria Shnaider in the third round.

Fresh from being upset by Jelena Ostapenko in the semi-final in Qatar, world No 2 Iga Swiatek will kick off her campaign against one of Victoria Azarenka and Anhelina Kalinina while she could meet 13th seed Beatriz Haddad Maia in the third round and seventh seed Zheng Qinwen in the quarter-final.

Zheng could face Ons Jabeur for the second week in a row, but the Tunisian will have to get past Peyton Stearns in the first round. Jabeur defeated the Chinese star in the first round in Doha.