"A great birthday present": Jessica Pegula dismisses Elina Svitolina in Dubai for 10th career title

“0 my friend. Dubai is pending.”

This was the response from Jessica Pegula after Tennis Channel’s social media team highlighted her steady results when she reached a seventh consecutive semifinal dating back to the 2025 US Open earlier this week at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships.

The zero was an acknowledgement from the Buffalo, N.Y. native that while consistent, none of those runs resulted in taking home the hardware she was looking for.

That changed on Saturday, when the pending was upgraded to won, or in this case, one.

After coming through a pair of deciding sets, Pegula put together a more comprehensive display for a 6-2, 6-4 victory over seventh-seeded Elina Svitolina. The world No. 5 dropped serve just once, impressively claiming 73 percent of her points at the line in the 63-minute title match.

“It’s a great birthday present for me. Just super happy to go home with a trophy,” she said during the trophy presentation.

Pegula, who turns 32 on Tuesday, now owns 10 career WTA titles. Four have come at the 1000 level, with this marking her first away from North American hard courts. The 31-year-old has won 13 of 15 matches to open her season and remains on Coco Gauff's heels to be the No. 1-ranked American.

Svitolina has been equally productive at the start of 2026, departing this event with a 15-3 mark that began with a title in Auckland and three subsequent Top 10 victories.

“Unfortunately didn't find the ways to put her off balance. I think she played a wonderful match,” the Ukrainian said in press. “She was striking the ball perfect. Played really solid match.

"There's nothing negative I would say from this tournament because I put even today my 100% as much as I could. I tried to fight. I tried to come back into the match in the second. She played just too good."