Withdrawals and Walkovers Wreak Havoc on Dubai Draw

Ominous undertones stalked this year's Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships before a ball had even been struck.

Just days before the second WTA 1000 event of the season was due to get underway, the tour's leading two players - Iga Swiatek and Aryna Sabalenka - both announced that they were withdrawing from this year's tournament. Not an ideal look for supposedly one of the calendar's biggest events - even less so coming just six weeks into a fresh season.

The absence of the World's No. 1 and 2 was a significant blow to the marketable appeal of the event, as evident through tournament director Salah Tahlak's extraordinary call to apply a points penalty to the pair:

Dubai Tennis Championships director Salah Tahlak calls for harsher punishment on players for withdrawing from tournaments 🤯... #igaswiatek #ArynaSabalenka pic.twitter.com/pZnluamb11
— FirstSportz Tennis (@FS_Tennis1) February 16, 2026

"The only way to make sure the top players come and play is by docking them points," Tahlak asserted. "Fines do not work anymore. If you dock them points, then they will think twice before they withdraw. It is not fair to the fans who buy tickets months in advance to see the best in the world."

Perhaps most staggering about Tahlak's remarks was that he suggested a punitive deduction of between 500 and 1000 points, a move that would alter the very landscape at the summit of the WTA rankings. The extent to which he felt shunned by the pair's absence was palpable.

Yet, unfortunately for Tahlak, the withdrawal of the world's top two was merely the tip of the iceberg - one that would precipitate a cascade of further withdrawals and walkovers across the opening two days of the tournament, wreaking havoc on the field in Dubai.

Including Swiatek and Sabalenka, a total of seven players withdrew from the tournament without taking to the court, either having initially been in the draw and then pulling out, or withdrawing from the event prior to the draw being made.

Paula Badosa, Daria Kasatkina, Sara Bejlek, and Ella Seidel all pulled out on Tuesday, having come through their opening-round matches, while Barbora Krejcikova retired from her second-round match on Monday, bringing the grand total of tournament casualties to a startling twelve.

Jessica Pegula: I know that the schedule is very tough, and it's not easy, and I think at some point in the year, if you do have a few good results, I think some weeks, unfortunately, do become a little bit of a sacrifice if you're thinking long term. https://t.co/bqqvFmL2FR pic.twitter.com/cMRe6mQTSb
— Reem Abulleil (@ReemAbulleil) February 17, 2026

Withdrawals Symptomatic of Deeper Discontent

While anomalies like this do happen, in which a disproportionate number of players succumb to injury or illness at the same tournament, the nature of the decimation of Dubai's draw this year has a distinct feeling of rebellion to it.

For one thing, both Swiatek and Sabalenka said ahead of the 2026 season that this year they would prioritise their mental and physical health over the need to meet certain Tour-defined criteria.

Both players said this, knowing that it could result in fines, but were quite deliberate in wanting to emphasise that the punishment was the lesser of two evils when it came to keeping up with the relentless grind of the WTA Tour.

"I have learned that I have to listen to my body if I want to stay at the top for a long time," was how Sabalenka put it when speaking in Brisbane last month. "My team and I decided that longevity is the priority for 2026. I want to play for many more years, and that means being selective even when it is difficult to miss great tournaments like Dubai."

2 more withdrawals at the WTA Dubai Masters 1000.

Daria Kasatkina withdrew due to a right hip injury. Andreeva advances to R16 via walkover.

Sara Bejlek also withdrew, Bencic advances to R16 via walkover.
— edgeAI (@edgeAIapp) February 17, 2026

Speaking at last season's WTA Finals in November, Swiatek was strikingly candid in her admission that she will not adhere to mandatory tournament requirements this year.

"The transition between these big tournaments is very fast, and my body is telling me to stop," she said at the time. "I won’t pay attention to which tournaments are mandatory or where I risk losing positions in the rankings. I will organise my 2026 as I see fit."

The other aspect to this is that it comes amid the backdrop of an increasingly febrile dynamic between tennis players and the bodies that govern the sport. Widespread calls for reform have emerged in the shape of lawsuits and open letters, while recurrent expressions of exasperation in press conferences and interviews are now beginning to turn to anger.

The core of much of this discontent is that the tennis season is too long and arduous, resulting in injuries, burnout, and mental health issues that could be avoided with a longer off-season and greater flexibility in tournament attendance.

wta dubai tennis championship 2026 in a nutshell pic.twitter.com/2htWWhqoKz
— 🎾 (@jumpingbhs) February 17, 2026

Intransigence Will Lead to New Era of Rebellion

Yet, as calls for schedule reform are perceived to have fallen on deaf ears, players have been emboldened to prioritise what's best for them over any kind of obligation to their sport's governing bodies. It is the price that tournaments must now pay for player indignation and the WTA's intransigence.

The fact that a large contingent of standout performers from last week's 1000-level event in Doha made up a sizeable chunk of the withdrawals at this week's Dubai exodus is further testament to the quiet rebellion - either deliberately or otherwise - against the unrelenting machine that is professional tennis.

Leading figures in the WTA and tournament organisers have been gambling on the prestige and ranking power of their events in order to compel players to compete. Yet it is now clear that the more this is pushed to the extreme - namely, increasing numbers of 1000-level events, some with 12-day expansions, and reduced time between tournaments - the greater the resistance will be.

The WTA calendar is so severely overcrowded with mandatories and 500s in the first three months it makes the ATP schedule look like a cakewalk.

18 withdrawals and 2 retirements in Dubai. That's just the chickens coming home to roost.
— Gill Gross 🌆 (@Gill_Gross) February 17, 2026

Putting two back-to-back WTA 1000 tournaments in successive weeks is negligent at best and, at worst, shows an active disregard towards player welfare.

In the current climate of discontent, at a time when players are understanding their need to self-unionise against the insatiable commercial beast they operate in, this kind of scheduling will only further fuel resentment. The absences in Dubai this week are merely a symptom of that.

While tournament organisers and the WTA will hope that the depleted field in Dubai this year is only an anomalous hiccup, they may soon find themselves forced to face an uncomfortable reality, as a new era of revolt is fully ushered in.

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