The Dubai Tennis Championships is one of the most established stops on the sport’s annual calendar, staged every February at the Aviation Club courts in Dubai. The tournament launched in 1993 with a men’s event, added a women’s draw in 2001, and today stands as the premier tennis occasion in the Arab world. This guide covers the tournament format, where it sits in the sport’s hierarchy, its notable champions, and what makes it a distinctive fixture on the calendar.
Dubai Tennis Championships Format and Classification
The tournament comprises two separate events staged in consecutive or overlapping weeks depending on the season:
- The men’s event — classified ATP 500, the second tier below the Masters 1000 series and the four Grand Slams
- The women’s event — classified WTA 1000, the highest category below the Grand Slams, a status the tournament has held continuously since 2023 after previously alternating between 500 and 1000
The classification gap between the two events carries a practical implication: the women’s draw awards 1,000 points to its champion while the men’s awards 500. That makes the Dubai Tennis Championships a more consequential stop in the WTA ranking race than in its ATP counterpart.
The surface is outdoor hard court, and matches run in two daily sessions — afternoon and evening — an arrangement that avoids peak heat and gives the night session its particular atmosphere.
Prize Money and Ranking Points
Total prize money in the men’s event exceeds $3.3 million, with the champion collecting over $619,000 alongside 500 ranking points. The runner-up receives around $333,000 and 330 points, and semi-finalists around $177,000 and 200 points.
In the women’s event, the champion’s prize reaches $665,000 with 1,000 ranking points — which explains why most of the world’s top ten appear on the entry list each year.
Champions Who Built the Dubai Tennis Championships
The Men’s Event
The Dubai Tennis Championships has hosted nearly every major name in the sport across its history. Recent repeat champions include Daniil Medvedev and Andrey Rublev, alongside Stefanos Tsitsipas, who took the 2025 title with a win over Felix Auger-Aliassime.
The 2026 edition saw Medvedev return to the winner’s circle, beating the Netherlands’ Tallon Griekspoor in the final.
The Women’s Event
The women’s roll of honour includes Justine Henin, Venus Williams, Simona Halep, and Elina Svitolina, who won back-to-back Dubai titles in 2017 and 2018.
In the 2026 edition, American Jessica Pegula took the title with a 6–2, 6–4 win over Svitolina in just seventy-two minutes. It was her tenth career title and her fourth at WTA 1000 level. The final carried an additional storyline: by reaching it, Svitolina set the record for the longest gap between successive 1000-level finals by a single player since the format was introduced in 2009 — seven years and 277 days since her previous one at Rome in 2018.
Why the Dubai Tennis Championships Holds a Special Position
Three factors explain the tournament’s standing despite the men’s event sitting below the top tier.
Timing. The Dubai Tennis Championships falls in February within what is known as the Middle East swing, between the Australian Open and the start of the American hard-court season. That position makes it a formative stop in shaping many players’ seasons.
Organisation. The tournament is known for a high standard of staging and hospitality that makes the attendance of leading players close to guaranteed each year — something not always achieved by events in the same category.
Regional presence. The Dubai Tennis Championships is the region’s flagship tennis event, and Arabic-language coverage around it remains limited relative to the size of the audience — the same Arabic-speaking sports following that drives interest in the Saudi Pro League, which leaves a standing opportunity for anyone seeking analysis in Arabic.
Practical Information
- Venue — Dubai Duty Free Tennis Stadium, Aviation Club, Dubai
- Timing — the second half of February annually
- Surface — outdoor hard court
- Qualifying — staged over the two days preceding the main draw
- Daily schedule — two sessions per day, afternoon and evening, with finals moved to an earlier slot
Summary
The Dubai Tennis Championships combines a top-tier classification in the women’s draw, a consistently strong field in the men’s, and a calendar position that makes it an early indicator of the season ahead. For the Arab tennis audience, it is the closest annual opportunity to watch the world’s best players in the region — and the draw ceremony at the start of the week is the moment the shape of the entire edition is set.