Dubai Tennis Championships · History

The Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships have been played on outdoor hard courts at the Aviation Club in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, since 1993. The tournament is owned by Dubai Duty Free and takes place in late February. Since 2001 it has had two draws, a men’s event on the ATP Tour and a women’s event on the WTA Tour, held in back-to-back weeks.

Beginnings at the Aviation Club

The first edition, in 1993, was an ATP 250 event. There was no stadium yet. Temporary scaffold stands around the hard courts held about 3,000 spectators across all of them. The first champion was Karel Nováček of the Czech Republic, then ranked No. 23 in the world, who beat Fabrice Santoro 6-4, 7-5 in the final. Sweden’s Magnus Gustafsson won in 1994, South Africa’s Wayne Ferreira in 1995 and Croatia’s Goran Ivanišević in 1996. The Dubai Tennis Stadium, designed by Mario and Luigi Donato, opened on the site in 1996. Austria’s Thomas Muster beat Ivanišević in the 1997 final, and Spain’s Àlex Corretja took the title in 1998.

The move to ATP 500 and the start of the women’s event

In 2001 the ATP upgraded the men’s event from ATP 250 to ATP 500. That year’s title went to Juan Carlos Ferrero, the runner-up in 2000, after Marat Safin retired in the second set of the final. The WTA event also started in 2001, at Premier level, and Martina Hingis was its first champion, beating Nathalie Tauziat 6-4, 6-4. In 2005 Dubai began paying men and women the same prize money, the third professional event to do so after the US Open and the Australian Open. A 293-room hotel opened on the site in 2012 to house players and officials.

Federer’s eight titles

Roger Federer holds the men’s records with eight titles and ten finals. He won three in a row in 2003, 2004 and 2005. He lost the 2006 final to Rafael Nadal and won again in 2007. More titles followed in 2012, with a final against Andy Murray, and in 2014 and 2015, the second of those against Novak Djokovic. On 2 March 2019 he beat Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-4, 6-4 for his eighth Dubai title, which was also the 100th title of his career. Djokovic has five titles: 2009, 2010 and 2011, three in a row like Federer, plus 2013 and 2020. Other champions include Andy Roddick (2008), Stan Wawrinka (2016), Andy Murray (2017) and Roberto Bautista Agut (2018).

Henin, Venus Williams and the women’s event

Justine Henin has won the most women’s singles titles in Dubai, four, in 2003, 2004, 2006 and 2007. Venus Williams won three (2009, 2010 and 2014), and Elina Svitolina won two in a row (2017 and 2018). Henin, Williams and Svitolina share the record of two consecutive titles. Simona Halep won in 2015 and 2020. For years the women’s event switched category from one year to the next, between WTA 1000 and WTA 500. It has been a WTA 1000 event every year since 2024. That year Italy’s Jasmine Paolini came from a set down to beat Anna Kalinskaya 4-6, 7-5, 7-5 in the final.

The Shahar Pe’er case in 2009

In 2009 the UAE refused a visa to Israeli player Shahar Pe’er, who had a place in the women’s draw. Several players, including Venus Williams, criticised the decision in public. The WTA fined the tournament US$300,000, the largest fine it had ever imposed, and turned down the organisers’ appeal. Pe’er received US$44,250 and a guaranteed place in the 2010 draw. For the men’s event the following week, the authorities granted a visa to Israeli doubles player Andy Ram.

Champions of the 2020s

The men’s champions were Russia’s Aslan Karatsev (2021), Andrey Rublev (2022), who beat Jiří Veselý in the final after the Czech had knocked out Djokovic in the quarter-finals, Daniil Medvedev (2023), France’s Ugo Humbert (2024) and Stefanos Tsitsipas (2025). The women’s champions were Garbiñe Muguruza (2021), Jeļena Ostapenko (2022), Barbora Krejčíková (2023) and Mirra Andreeva (2025). In 2026 Medvedev won his second Dubai title when Tallon Griekspoor gave him a walkover in the final, and Jessica Pegula won the women’s event by beating Svitolina 6-2, 6-4.