Bejlek’s Left-Handed Fire Ignites Abu Dhabi
From the qualifiers’ shadows, 20-year-old Sara Bejlek forged a path through the heat and pressure, claiming her first WTA title with a composure that turned doubt into dominance.
Under the glaring lights of Zayed Sports City, Sara Bejlek, the 20-year-old Czech ranked No. 101, sealed her maiden WTA Tour singles title at the Mubadala Abu Dhabi Open. The left-hander’s 7-6(5), 6-1 straight-sets victory over No. 2 seed Ekaterina Alexandrova capped a relentless seven-win surge across eight days at this WTA 500 event. Her heavy topspin forehands and angled slices had dismantled higher seeds, rewriting a season edged with frustration into one of breakthrough.
Qualifier path unlocks hidden steel
Bejlek entered as an afterthought, grinding through two qualifying matches to snag her second career WTA 500 main draw spot. The former Roland Garros junior doubles champion, whose pro transition had stalled after a No. 75 peak last November, faced immediate fire in the second round against World No. 24 Jelena Ostapenko. Her deep crosscourt backhands jammed the Latvian’s explosive returns, forcing errors that propelled a career-best ranking win and ignited the arena’s murmur into cheers.
Momentum built in the quarterfinals with a 6-0, 6-2 demolition of Sonay Kartal, where Bejlek’s one–two serve-return pattern stretched the Briton’s steady baseline game. The crowd, a blend of locals and expats, fed off her quickened footwork as shots landed with precision on the medium-fast hardcourts. For full match details, see Abu Dhabi: Scores | Draws | Order of play.
Semifinal edge sharpens top-20 hunt
The semifinal against Clara Tauson pushed Bejlek to her limits in a 7-5, 3-6, 7-5 battle, her first Top 20 victory after clawing from a third-set deficit. Tauson’s serve-volley rushes met resistance from low underspin slices that disrupted rhythm, allowing inside-in forehands to pierce the court. This win, her initial scalp in the elite ranks, doubled when she faced Alexandrova, the World No. 11 whose flat backhand bombs tested endurance on the bouncy surface.
In 1 hour and 39 minutes, Bejlek pulled away after a first-set scrap, her composure echoing the mental drills that had rebuilt her through months of close defeats. She doubled her career total of Top 20 wins against World No. 11 Alexandrova, as she pulled away from the No. 2 seed in 1 hour and 39 minutes after a tense first set.
Final tiebreak turns pressure to power
Bejlek dominated early in the opener, but Alexandrova clawed back, saving two set points in the 12th game before seizing a 4-2 tiebreak lead. The Russian’s down-the-line winners had the stands holding breath, yet the Czech reset with looping topspin that pinned her opponent deep. She claimed five of the last six points, blending crosscourt angles with net rushes to snag the set and shift the match’s pulse.
A break in the second set’s first game unleashed Bejlek, who then fired 10 straight points to swing from 2-1 to 5-1. Her inside-out forehands exploited Alexandrova’s aggressive positioning, drawing weak replies for down-the-line finishes amid swelling crowd roars. As the first qualifier to win this five-year-old event and the inaugural Czech champion, Bejlek joins last year’s unseeded hero Belinda Bencic, her Top 50 leap next week signaling a game primed for bigger stages.
