Sunday, February 08, 2026

Wk.5- C-Z-E in the U-A-E

Yep, Sara crushed it.






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*WEEK 5 CHAMPIONS*
ABU DHAHI, U.A.E. (WTA 500; Hard Court Outdoor)
S: Sara Bejlek/CZE def. Ekaterina Alexandrova/RUS 7-6(5)/6-1
D: Ekaterina Alexandrova/Maya Joint (RUS/AUS) def. Tereza Mihalikova/Olivia Nicholls (SVK/GBR) 3-6/7-6(5) [10-8]
OSTRAVA, CZECH REPUBLIC (WTA 250; Hard Court Indoor)
S: Katie Boulter/GBR def. Tamara Korpatsch/GER 5-7/6-2/6-1
D: Anastasia Detiuc/Sabrina Santamaria (CZE/USA) def. Lucie Havlickova/Dominika Salkova (CZE/CZE) 6-4/7-6(4)
CLUJ-NAPOCA, ROMANIA (WTA 250; Hard Court Indoor)
S: Sorana Cirstea/ROU def. Emma Raducanu/GBR 6-0/6-2
D: Kamilla Rakhimova/Sara Sorribes Tormo (UZB/ESP) def. Wang Xinyu/Zheng Saisai (CHN/CHN) 7-6(7)/6-3
Mumbai, India (WTA 125; Hard Court Outdoor)
S: Mananchaya Sawangkaew/THA def. Lilli Tagger/AUT 6-4/6-3
D: Polina Iatcenko/Elena Pridankina (RUS/RUS) def. Nicole Fossa Huego/Mananchaya Sawangkaew (ARG/THA) 7-6(3)/1-6 [10-5]




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PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Sara Bejlek/CZE
...another week, another member of the Crush of Czechs makes a move. This time by becoming a first-time tour singles champion.

After the likes of fellow young Czechs Tereza Valentova, Nikola Bartunkova and others have been significant strides at tour level in recent weeks and months, Bejlek finally followed suit. After shining on the challenger level as a teenager, and sparking with a 4th Round run in Madrid in her 1000 debut (and, so far, only 1000 MD) two years ago, the 20-year old had struggled to get over the hump at tour-level, going 1-7 in slam MD play and with just a lone tour-level QF result (coming in Prague last year) on her resume.

What turned out to be the best week of her career saw Bejlek (#101) have to make her way through Abu Dhabi qualifying just to reach the MD, then rise to the occasion with wins over Ashlyn Krueger, Alona Ostapenko, Sonay Kartal and Clara Tauson (the Dane claimed the only set Bejlek lost in seven matches) and Ekaterina Alexandrova in back-to-back Top 20 wins in the SF/F.



Bejlek's 1-0 mark in WTA finals now stands quite well alongside her records in lower level finals, 4-0 in 125 events and 7-3 on the ITF circuit. She'll jump a whopping 63 spots to a new career high of #38, obliterating her former high of #75 and moving from CZE #8 to #5 by jumping up-and-comer Valentova, a multiple slam winner (Krejcikova) and a former-and-likely-future (again) WD #1 (Siniakova) in one giant leap.
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RISERS: Ekaterina Alexandrova/RUS and Hailey Baptiste/USA
...a year after winning her biggest career title in Linz (which has moved to April on the '26 schedule), Alexandrova reached yet another 500 final. The Hordette also *lost* another 500 final, dropping her to 0-4 in her last four tour-level singles finals (all 500s) and 1-6 (all but one a 500 event) in her last seven.



Alexandrova's path in Abu Dhabi to her 13th career WTA singles final included wins over Dayana Yastremska, Alex Eala and Hailey Baptiste (saving a MP), but she fell in straight sets to Sara Bejlek with the title on the line. She'll still return to the Top 10 on Monday, moving past dropping '25 Ahu Dhabi champ Belinda Bencic, who withdrew from this year's event due to injury after being drawn as the #1 seed.

Alexandrova rebounded later on Saturday to claim the doubles crown alongside Maya Joint.

Meanwhile, though she came up a point short of something bigger against Alexandrova, Abu Dhabi was still the site of yet another career leap for Baptiste, who rode previous wins over Teodora Kostovic, Emma Navarro and Liudmila Samsonova to her maiden tour-level SF. Her second set MP, and chance to serve out the win soon afterward, went by the wayside in her semi match-up with Alexandrova in what was the Bannerette's fifth consecutive three-set contest this season (and seventh in her last eight matches).

Thus far, Baptiste is a good 5-3 in the those outings, but if she'd been able to wring one more win out of the stretch she might have been making an even bigger leap on Monday than her new career high standing of #39.


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SURPRISES: Daria Snigur/UKR and Katie Volynets/USA
...Snigur's most memorable career match had a Romanian connection, as she was the player who upset Simona Halep in the 1st Round of the U.S. Open in 2022 before the fateful drug test that wreaked havoc with the next three years of Halep's career, ultimately ending it in Cluj-Napoca with her surprise retirement announcement one year ago after what was just her sixth match -- following a contentious, years-long fight to clear her name and return to the court -- since the Snigur defeat.

Well, Halep was back in Cluj this past week, as a guest working along with the tournament, and there was Snigur putting on a career-best run to her maiden tour-level SF. Wins over Sarah Rakotomanga, #2 seeded Romanian Jaqueline Cristian and Yuan Yue (who served for match vs. the Ukrainian) preceded a loss from qualifier Snigur to still another Romanian, eventual champion Sorana Cirstea.

Snigur will jump from #144 to #123 on Monday, getting closer to the career-high of #105 she set in November '22.



A former world #56 (in '24), Volynets will climb just a few more spaces inside the Top 100, up a few ticks from her #96 ranking, after a week that started out pretty well, and ended even better.



In Ostrava, the 24-year old reached her second career WTA semi, her first since Austin in 2023.

Volynets showed signs in the '25 4Q Asian swing of upward progression, with a 125 final (Suzhou) and tour-level QF run (Guangzhou) in October, and this week's wins over Linda Klimovicova, top-seeded Tatjana Maria and Alycia Parks (before a loss to eventual champ Katie Boulter) continued the trend.
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VETERANS: Sorana Cirstea/ROU and Tamara Korpatsch/GER
...Cirstea has said that this is her final season on tour, and that she intends to make it count. After her biggest January headlines involved a minor row with Naomi Osaka in Melbourne, the 35-year old Romanian let her results do the talking in Cluj-Napoca as she claimed her first title on home soil, and her second overall since last summer to became the ninth-oldest WTA singles champion ever.

Cirstea, at about 35 years and ten months, is the oldest of the WTA's group of 35-year old singles champions, with only wins from Billie Jean King (39), Kimiko Date-Krumm (38), Serena Williams (38), Tatjana Maria (37), Martina Navratilova (2 at 37, one at 36) and Francesca Schiavone (36) coming later in a career in tour history.

In Cluj, she didn't drop a set as she posted wins over Kamilla Rakhimova, Tamara Zidansek, Anastasia Potapova, Daria Snigur and Emma Raducanu. Cirstea lost three or fewer *total* games in three of her five maches on the week, and just five games combined in the SF/F.

All three of the titles that Cirstea has won in the 2020s, the first of which came in 2021 after a dozen and a half year tour title drought, have seen her take the crown without dropping a set in the tournament, with Cluj being added to a list that includes Istanbul (2021) and Cleveland (2025).

The Romanian is 10-2 on the season.



After reaching as high as #21 in both 2013 and '14, Cirstea is once again theoretically in the hunt for her belated Top 20 breakthrough. She'll climb five spots to #31 on Monday, about 500 points out of the Top 20. Should she finally crack the barrier this season, she'd become the oldest woman to ever make her Top 20 debut. She'll turn 36 in April, with the current record holder being Mirjana Lucic-Baroni, who reached the Top 20 for the first time about two months after turning 35 in 2017.

In Ostrava, Korpatsch reached her second tour final (after her Cluj title run in '23), recording victories over Anna Siskova, #2-seed Emiliana Arango, Caty McNally and Diane Parry.



Ranked #124, the German will nearly return to the Top 100 (#102), where she hasn't been since July 2024.
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COMEBACKS: Katie Boulter/GBR and Emma Raducanu/GBR
...for the first time, two British women reached different WTA tour-level singles finals on the same weekend in this Week 5 (i.e. they didn't play each other in the same event, which *did* happen in Nottingham in 2023). But only one walked off with the title.

That honor would go to Boulter, who picked up career title #4 some fifteen months after claiming her last, following a struggle of a '25 season (aside from a few clay court moments with her maiden RG win and first clay title, at the 125 level) that saw her go 22-22 and fall from #24 at the start of last season to #120 heading into this past week.

Things finally game together again in Ostrava, as Boulter got victories over Lucie Havlickova, Viktorija Golubic, Linda Fruhvirtova, Katie Volynets and Tamara Kopatsch in a final in which the Brit rallied from a set down, allowing the German just three games in the final two sets.

It's Boulter's first WTA crown since her successful title defense in Nottingham in 2024.



Meanwhile, just when she seemed to be zigging once again (jettisoning yet another coach after AO26), Raducanu zagged, reaching her first tour-level singles final since winning the U.S. Open in 2021, resetting the clock once again when it comes to judging the ongoing progression -- or sometimes the lack thereof -- of her career.



Following her Romanian roots, Raducanu rode a wave with wins over Greet Minnen, Kaja Juvan (winning 7-5/6-1 after losing the first five games of the match), Maja Chwalinska and Oleksandra Oliynykova before notching just two games in the final against Sorana Cirstea.



Her week will lift Raducanu's ranking five spots to #25, her best standing since dropping her U.S. Open title points in 2022.
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FRESH FACES: Oleksandra Oliynykova/UKR and Mananchaya Sawangkaew/THA
...after picking up steam in the lower levels in 2025, going 7-0 in 125/ITF finals and cracking the Top 100, Oliynykova has gone about the opening weeks of '26 becoming one of the newest personalities on the most interesting tour in the world.



Armed with a frustrating gameplan (for opponents), a unique on-court look (which for the Transylvania Open included temporary adjustments to her facial tattoos so that they resembled bats flying beneath her eyes), and a bold personal style (before her slam debut vs. DC Madison Keys, she expressed support during the AO for the long-put-away notion of banning RUS/BLR players, then the Ukrainian refused to shake the hand of her *Hungarian* opponent in Cluj... because she'd played in a post-invasion team exhibition event in Russia back in 2022), Oliynykova brought attention to herself with her between-the-lines action in Cluj by reaching the semifinals in just her second tour-level MD event.



Oliynykova opened with a late night win from a set down over Mayar Sherif, then followed up with defeats of Anna Bondar (minus a pre-match photo or a post-match handshake) and Wang Xinyu (when she saved 20 of 22 BP) before finally falling to Emma Raducanu in three sets, a win away from the final.

Somehow, this feels more like a beginning than a brief encounter.



Oliynykova now jumps 20 spots to a career high #71.

In Mumbai, Sawangkaew grabbed her biggest career title at the same 125 event at which she's reached her biggest career final a year ago (a loss to Jil Teichmann).

This time around, the 23-year old backed up her all-Thai SF win over Lanlana Tararudee with a straight sets victory in the final over streaking Austrian teen Lilli Tagger, ending the 17-year old's nine-match winning streak.

Sawangkaew, who opened the year with a $75K title run, will rise 24 spots to #212 with her 11-2 start to '26. She reached the Top 100 last summer, but then saw her ranking sink when she was forced off tour due to a back injury from June until late November.



Sawangkaew also reached the doubles final with Nicole Fossa Huego.
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DOWN: Alona Ostapenko/LAT
...while she's found early season success in doubles -- with a title in Brisbane, and AO QF -- Ostapenko is having a hard time getting started on the singles side in '26.

After a 2025 campaign in which she briefly shined white-hot (reaching the s/d finals in Doha, with a win over Iga Swiatek, then a title run in Stuttgart during which she knocked off #2 Swiatek again, as well as #1 Sabalenka) yet finished the season having lost more times than she won (going 18-20), Ostapenko's slumping finish has carried over into the new year.

She ended '25 on a 3-9 slide, with two retirements and without a multi-win event since Roland Garros. With her close win over Oksana Selekhmeteva and then 2nd Round loss to Sara Bejlek in Abu Dhabi, the Lavtian stands at 2-4 in '26 (w/ another ret.).


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ITF PLAYER: Talia Gibson/AUS
...the 21-year old Aussie continued her good run Down Under, adding to her AO 1st Round singles win over Anna Blinkova (and pushing of Diana Shnaider to three sets in the 2r) and doubles upset of #1-seeded Errani/Paolini in Melbourne with her 11th career challenger crown (fourth $75K) with a win in Brisbane. She downed veteran Nao Hibino in a 6-3/7-6 final.

Hibino, 31, had been looking to keep up her recent resurgence with what would have been her first singles title on any level in nearly three years. Last year, she recorded her first slam MD win in four years with a 1st Round victory in Paris.
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JUNIOR STAR: Janae Preston/USA
...the 15-year old Bannerette has now claimed *two* early-season J300 crowns, this weekend taking the title in Salinas (ECU) with a win in the final over fellow U.S. teen Sarah Ye.

Last month, the #71-ranked girl took home the honors in San Jose, Costa Rica.


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DOUBLES: Ekaterina Alexandrova/Maya Joint, RUS/AUS
...while Alexandrova came up short in the Abu Dhabi singles final, she took the doubles with Joint via a 10-8 MTB win over Tereza Mihalikova/Olivia Nicholls in the WD final a few hours later.

It's the Russian vet's second WTA doubles win, but first since 2019, while 19-year old Aussie Joint's second crown comes in her fourth doubles final since last May (she's also picked up a pair of WTA singles titles during the stretch).


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1. Abu Dhabi 2nd Rd. - Alex Eala def. Aliaksandra Sasnovich
...2-6/6-4/7-6(5). Eala again brought the fans, and for a while brought the results, too.

The Filipina trailed Sasnovich 4-0 and 5-2 in the 3rd, facing a MP on her opponent's serve before breaking the Belarusian on her third BP chance. Sasnovich still served for the match again two games later, but still couldn't put away the win, then held a mini-break lead at 5-4 in the TB (w/ two serves incoming). She lost both, as Eala swept the final three points to advance.


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2. Abu Dhabi SF - Ekaterina Alexandrova def. Hailey Baptiste
...3-6/7-6(5)/6-3. Baptiste came "this close" to a superior week. After taking the 1st set, she saved four BP and held for 4-3 in the 2nd, carving out a MP chance two game later at 5-4 before Alexandrova saved it and soon forced a deciding breaker.

The Hordette veteran broke out of a 5-5 deadlock in the TB to win 7-5 and reach her 13th tour final.


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3. Cluj-Napoca 1st Rd. - Oleksandra Oliynykova def. Mayar Sherif 6-7(6)/6-4/6-4
Cluj-Napoca 2nd Rd. - Oleksandra Oliynykova def. Anna Bondar 6-4/6-4
...personality-plus Oliynykova had quite the headline-generating week in Cluj, winning a toe-to-toe battle with Sherif into the night, taking the 1st set after both players held set points, then overcoming a 3-1 3rd set deficit to notch her first tour-level MD victory on her fourth BP/MP in the final game.

In her next outing, she dragged out into the light Bondar's participation in a frowned-upon Saint Petersburg team exihibition -- the North Palmyra Trophies -- held in December 2022, and sponsored by a Putin-linked/war-fueling energy company, in defiance of the sport's ban on Russian events. The Ukrainian wanted an apology from Bondar, didn't get it, and then followed through with her decision to not have a pre-match photo taken together or shake the Hungarian's hand following the match.

A little history on that event: it's continued to be held at the end of recent years, and has mostly been populated by Russian players (Medvedev, Shnaider, V.Kudermetova, Bublik, Khachanov, etc.), Original Hordettes (Kuznetsova, Myskina and Vesnina in the first event) or current pros with Russian links (Potapova, Putintseva). Bondar has been one of the few non-RUS players to attend, along with the likes of Bulgarian Viktoriya Tomova and Dutch player Tallon Griekspoor (Potapova's boyfriend, he attended the Dec. '25 event after being practically begged not to do so -- here's a good article on that situation, and the entire issue).

Expect Oliynykova to continue to be a headline-maker, for reasons both obvious, thought-provoking and, as far as her game in concerned, also quite entertaining.
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4. Cluj-Napoca 2nd Rd. - Emma Raducanu def. Kaja Juvan 7-5/6-1
Cluj-Napoca Final - Sorana Cirstea def. Emma Raducanu 6-0/6-2
...Raducanu had a "so-very-Raducanu-esque" week in Cluj.

With her Romanian roots, she had immediate rapport with the fans, but after arriving following *another* coaching move (naturally) she found herself down 5-0 in the 1st set of her 2nd Round match vs. Kaja Juvan, which served to cue all the "Raducanu can't play" real-time attacks on the Brit on social media. Then, mostly to crickets from the same corners, she rallied to get the win and played herself into her first final since winning the U.S. Open, reminding everyone that her appeal *did* have a legitimate game-based foundation in its origin story.

Then came the final.



Raducanu wasn't able to rise to the occasion vs. Cirstea, and needed some in-match medical attention (naturally), waking up all the social media detractors who'd crawled back into the shadows for a few days until it was safe to bring the hate once more. So the current State of Raducanu's Game report, I suppose, will depend on through which pair of glasses someone views the proceedings.

It can't get much more "signature week" than that for Emma, I guess.


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5. Ostrava Final - Katie Boulter def. Tamara Korpatsch
...5-7/6-2/6-1. The winning side of the two British finalist combo from Week 5, as Boulter gets a *much* needed good result, as well as an unsolicited compliment on her character from her fallen opponent.


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6. Abu Dhabi Final - Sara Bejlek def. Ekaterina Alexandrova
...7-6(5)/6-1. Bejlek joins the three other qualifier champions since the start of last year: Tatjana Maria at Queen's Club, Sorana Cirstea in Cleveland, and Elisabetta Cocciaretto in Hobart just last month.

A season ago, the Abu Dhabi champion was a wild card (Belinda Bencic), who withdrew before this year's tournaments and opened the door for runner-up Alexandrova to earn back her Top 10 ranking next week.


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7. Abu Dhabi SF - Sara Bejlek def. Clara Tauson
...7-5/3-6/7-5. Tauson started 15-4 last season, but has had a rougher go of things in '26. She's 4-4 so far this season, but showed signs of life again in Abu Dhabi, only to come up short in a tight match (as she did vs. Mboko in Melbourne) once more.

Bejlek rallied to take the 1st set from 4-2 down, then broke the Dane in game 11 of the 3rd, converting on her fifth BP chance (after Tauson had a pair of GP) to lead 6-5. The Czech then served out the win at 15 to reach her maiden tour final.
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8. Cluj-Napoca 1st Rd. - Anastasia Potapova def. Lucia Bronzetti
...5-7/6-4/7-5. Potapova hasn't been cut-and-pasting Dasha Kasatkina's 2026 results, at least, and she can be thankful for that.

In her first match since losing that double-TB affair vs. Sabalenka at AO26, the new Austrian rallied from 7-5/4-2 back to clip Bronzetti at the wire. After being forced to a 3rd set, the Italian also led by an early break in the decider, and served for the win at 5-4.
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9. Cluj-Napoca 2nd Rd. - Daria Snigur def. Jaqueline Cristian
...6-1/6-0. Cluj used to be a fun stop for Cristian, especially when she ushered in the occasion by wearing a Dracula cape during pre-match inroductions in the early years (2021-23) of the event. She stopped bringing the smirk after that, just like the tournament, which formerly leaned fully into its Transylvanian folklore roots with a vampire-heavy marketing strategy that made it the most entertaining event on the WTA calendar.

Things have cooled the last few years, and officially seemed to die when the tournament was moved off of its original Halloween week date, though "Dracula" did make a brief appearance at the trophy ceremony this year, while Oleksandra Oliynykova's bat tattoos helped keep up appearances. The return of Simona Halep (though not as a player) ramped up the heart(warming) rate of the entire affair, too. More of this, please.

But what of Cristian, who helped start it all? Well, ever since her initial QF run in the debut event, she's been a feast-or-famine prospect, with a SF in '24 and doubles final last year, but two 1r and two 2r exits in the other seasons.
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10. Cluj-Napoca Final - Kamilla Rakhimova/Sara Sorribes Tormo def. Wang Xinyu/Zheng Saisai
...7-6(7)/6-3. Rakhimova adds another good result to her new "UZB" record, picking up a tour-level WD title after winning a 125 singles crown in December under her new flag (over Week 5 Ostrava finalist Tamara Korpatsch).

Sorribes Tormo improves to 14-3 in pro doubles finals, winning her seventh WTA crown in eight finals (w/ 2-0 125, 5-2 ITF marks).


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11. Doha Q1 - Vera Zvonareva def. Zhang Shuai 6-3/6-3
Doha Q2 - Vera Zvonareva def. Magdalena Frech 6-3/7-6(1)
Doha 1st Rd. - Vera Zvonareva def. Peyton Stearns 2-6/6-2/6-3
...the 41-year old Original Hordette, who reached $100K singles/doubles finals in Dubai in December in her first event after a 19-month absence from the sport, has already reached a 125 doubles final in '26 (Canberra).

The Middle East continues to bring her success, as Zvonareva has picked up a trio of Top 100 wins in Doha, qualifying this weekend with wins over Zhang and Magdalena Frech, then notching her first tour-level MD win since 2023 with an upset (??) of Peyton Stearns in the 1st Round on Sunday.



Meanwhile, perhaps Peyton has a little *too much* respect for her elders...


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12. Ostrava QF - Diane Parry def. Nikola Bartunkova
...6-1/6-3. Parry was a Top 50 player two seasons ago, but has slipped well outside the Top 100 after reaching no tour-level QF last season in a sub-.500 (20-23) campaign. The Pastry reached a trio of SF in '24.

In Ostrava, she finally reached her first semi since Osaka more than fifteen months ago. She'll push back to #107 in the new rankings.
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13. Abu Dhabi 1st Rd. - Simona Waltert def. Dasha Kasatkina 7-6(5)/3-6/6-4
Doha 1st Rd. - Dasha Kasatkina def. Moyuka Uchijima 4-6/6-3/6-0
...Kasatkina's follow-up to her poor non-slam campaign last year continued to be stuck in reverse in Abu Dhabi, as she fell to 1-4 with another one-and-done in Abu Dhabi. It's her 14th winless event since the start of last year.

She rebounded Sunday with a come from behind win over Uchijima, but can she follow it up? She'll next see Elise Mertens. It'd be her first Top 25 win since defeating Paula Badosa at last year's RG.
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14. Mumbai 125 Final - Mananchaya Sawangkaew def. Lilli Tagger
...6-4/6-3. Sawangkaew gets the win, but Austrian Tagger continues to shine.

Coming off a $100K title run, the 17-year old (who turns 18 in a week and a half) '25 RG girls' champ and tour-level finalist in Jiujiang last fall in her tour-level debut, had extended her winning streak to nine en route to the final.

Up to #115 on Monday, one of just two under-18 players in the Top 200 (w/ Emerson Jones), Tagger is 12-3 so far in '26.
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The currently-airing Cinnamon Toast Crunch commercials are essentially mini-movies about a serial killer, aka the piece of Cinnamon Toast Crunch who likes to eat other Cinnamon Toast Crunch.

Yes, these are actual commercials, though they could easily be fake ads running on "Saturday Night Live" or "Robot Chicken." The first ad features the "cannibal" holed up alone in his apartment, surrounded by cookbooks (one is called "Having Friends for Dinner") and with cut-up pieces of other Cinnamon Toast Crunch (w/ eyes) stored in his refrigerator, eating a bowl of cereal (filled w/ his own kind) while he talks about how "horrific" what he's doing is. Basically, he's a cereal version of Jeffrey Dahmer.




In the second ad, he stalks his next victim in the alley, murdering him and then eating him off the ground. I don't know if these things are in incredibly bad taste, or bordering on genius. Probably a version of both.









U2's in 2002 was one of the best Super Bowl halftime shows ever and, frankly, has become one of the most forgotten/overlooked, as well, thanks to the stunning one Prince pulled off a few years later that has ever since stood as the go-to for the top spot in any rankings.

Aside from the musical performance, the U2 set included a tribute to the victims of 9/11, which had occurred just five months earlier.












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*2026 OLDEST WTA FINALISTS*
35 - SORANA CIRSTEA (Cluj-Napoca)-W
31 - Elina Svitolina (Auckland)-W
31 - EKATERINA ALEXANDROVA (Abu Dhabi)
30 - TAMARA KORPATSCH (Ostrava)

*RECENT WTA CHAMPIONS AS A QUALIFIER*
2024 Monastir - Sonay Kartal, GBR
2024 Osaka - Suzan Lamens, NED
2025 London - Tatjana Maria, GER
2025 Cleveland - Sorana Cirstea, ROU
2026 Hobart - Elisabetta Cocciaretto, ITA
2026 Abu Dhabi - SARA BEJLEK, CZE

*2026 FIRST-TIME WTA SEMIFINALISTS*
Hobart: Taylah Preston, AUS (20/#204)
Hobart: Antonia Ruzic, CRO (22/#71)
Abu Dhabi: SARA BELJEK, CZE (20/#101) - won title
Abu Dhabi: HAILEY BAPTISTE, USA (24/#56)
Cluj-Napoca: OLEKSANDRA OLIYNYKOVA (25/#91)
Cluj-Napoca: DARIA SNIGUR, UKR (23/#144)

*MOST TITLES WON w/o DROPPING A SET - 2020s*
11 - Iga Swiatek, POL
5 - Aryna Sabalenka, BLR (1 in '26)
3 - SORANA CIRSTEA, ROU (1)
3 - Coco Gauff, USA
2 - Ash Barty, AUS
2 - Madison Keys, USA
2 - Anett Kontaveit, EST
2 - Bernarda Pera, USA
2 - Liudmila Samsonova, RUS

*ALL-UNSEEDED WTA SF - 2020s*
[W/RU, SF/SF]
2020 Lexington = Brady/Gauff, Teichmann/WC Rogers
2020 Istanbul = Tig/Q Martincova, Q Bouchard/Badosa
2021 Eastbourne = WC Ostapenko/Rybakina, Kontaveit/Q Giorgi
2021 Gydnia = SE Zanevska/Kozlova, Kucova/Korpatsch *
2022 Dubai = Ostapenko/Halep, V.Kudermetova/Q Vondrousova *
2024 Rabat = Stearns/Sherif, Rakhimova/Tomova
2024 Hua Hin 2 = Sramkova/Siegemund, Q Hartono/Zidansek #
2024 Merida = Sonmez/Li, Korneeva/P.Kudermetova
2025 Guadalajara = Jovic/Arango, Jacquemot/WC Bartunkova
2026 OSTRAVA = Boulter/Korpatsch, Volynets/Parry *
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* - 7/8 unseeded QF
# - 8/8 unseeded QF

*RECENT EARLY-CAREER WTA BREAKOUTS*
[less than 5 WTA MD]
2025: Maya Joint to Hobart SF (4th WTA MD, age 18)
2025: Julieta Pareja to Bogota SF (1st WTA MD, age 16)
2025: Lois Boisson to Roland Garros SF (1st career GS MD/2nd WTA MD; age 22)
2025: Lois Boisson wins Hamburg (3rd WTA MD, age 22)
2025: Janice Tjen to Sao Paulo F (2nd WTA MD, age 23)
2025: Tiantsoa Sarah Rakotomanga Rajaonah wins Sao Paulo (3rd WTA MD, age 19)
2025: Lilli Tagger to Jiujiang F (1st WTA MD, age 17)
2026: Oleksandra Oliynykova to Cluj-Napoca SF (2nd WTA MD, age 25)

*OLDEST WTA SINGLES CHAMPIONS*
Billie Jean King: 39y, 203d (1983 Birmingham)
Kimiko Date-Krumm: 38y, 364d (2009 Seoul)
Serena Williams: 38y, 108d (2020 Auckland)
Tatjana Maria: 37y, 311d (2025 London)
Martina Navratilova: 37y, 125d (1994 Paris Indoors)
Martina Navratilova: 37y, 20d (1993 Oakland)
[36]
Martina Navratilova: 36y, 301d (1993 Los Angeles)
Francesca Schiavone: 36y, 9m, 3w (2017 Bogota)
[35]
SORANA CIRSTEA: 35y 10m (2026 Cluj-Napoca)
Tatjana Maria: 35y, 8m (2023 Bogota)
Francesca Schiavone: 35y, 7m, 29d (2016 Rio)
Venus Williams: 35y, 7m, 28d (2016 Kaohsiung)
Helga Niessen Masthoff: 35y, 5m, 1d (1977 Monte Carlo)
Venus Williams: 35y, 4m, 22d (2015 Elite Trophy)
Sorana Cirstea: 35y, 4m, 2w (2025 Cleveland)
Serena Williams: 35y, 4m (2017 Australian)
Venus Williams: 35y, 3m, 16d (2015 Wuhan)
Marie Pinterova: 35y, 2m, 3d (1981 Japan Open)






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Facing racism in the sport head on, Surya Bonaly landed the banned backflip on one foot and made history anyway ⛸️ 💥

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— Christopher Webb (@cwebbonline.com) February 8, 2026 at 1:42 AM


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All for now.

posted by Todd.Spiker @ 3:30 PM 

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