WTA Abu Dhabi draw: Bencic top seed, Eala faces fellow rising star, Mboko out

Shahida Jacobs 01 Feb 2026 9:31 AM

World No 9 Belinda Bencic has earned a comfortable draw for her Abu Dhabi Open title defence as she will face either a qualifier or the world No 52 in the second round while youngster Alex Eala has been handed a tricky opener.

2021 Tokyo Games champion Bencic made a stunning return got top-level tennis 12 months ago as she beat Grand Slam winners Marketa Vondrousova and Elena Rybakina en route to the final before seeing off Ashlyn Krueger in the showpiece match to win the title.

Last year’s Abu Dhabi trophy, which was the ninth of her career at the time, came just 10 months after she gave birth to her first child, a daughter named Bella and helped her to return to the top 100 of the WTA Rankings.

She returned to the top 10 at the start of 2026 as she kicked off her campaign with a 5-0 loss in the singles at the United Cup before suffering a surprise second-round exit from the Australian Open.

The Swiss will return to action in the United Arab Emirates, but she will have a bye into the second before taking on either Cristian Bucsa or a qualifier, while she could meet seventh seed Jelena Ostapenko in the quarter-final.

Third seed Clara Tauson is the third-highest-ranked player in the field and she is also in the top half of the draw.

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The world No 14 will take on either Daria Kasatkina or a qualifier in the second round and Leylah Fernandez is a projected quarter-final opponent, although the sixth seed faces a challenging opener as she is up against Ajla Tomljanovic in the first round.

Second seed Ekaterina Alexandrova headlines the bottom half of the draw and the Russian starts off against Beatriz Haddad Maia or Dayana Yastremska in the second round.

If she gets through that encounter, she will take on either Eala or fellow rising star Zeynep Sonmez.

The 20-year-old Eala, who lost in the first round at Melbourne Park, currently sits at No 49 in the WTA Rankings while Sonmez is at No 112, but she is set to rise 33 places on Monday after reaching the second round in Australia.

Paola Badosa is also in the section and the eighth seed starts against fellow Spaniard Jessica Bouzas Maneiro and could meet Alexandrova in the quarter-final.

Fourth seed Emma Navarro is the other player in the draw to receive a bye into the second round and the American will take on Hailey Baptiste or Teodoara Kostovic first up and if she wins that encounter she could face fifth seed Liudmila Samsonova in the fourth round.

World No 16 Victoria Mboko was due to be the sixth seed at the WTA 500 event, but she withdrew from the tournament as a precaution, stating: “It’s been a couple of long weeks with a lot of matches, so it’s normal that as the matches progress, you start feeling something.

“I’m taking precautions right now and making sure everything is okay when I play my matches, that’s what it’s for. I had a hyperextension in Adelaide. It’s not a recurring injury or anything like that. It was just a minor setback.”