Elena Rybakina isn’t shy about it; she wants to be world No. 1. That’s the goal, plain and simple. She’s coming into the 2026 Dubai Tennis Championships still buzzing from her second Grand Slam win at the Australian Open and sitting at a career-high No. 3 in the rankings, a spot she first hit back in June 2023.

Right now, Rybakina has 7,523 ranking points. After making the quarter-finals in Doha last week, she’s just 280 points behind Iga Swiatek at No. 2, though Aryna Sabalenka holds the top spot with a bigger lead, 3,347 points ahead. Here’s the thing: neither Sabalenka nor Swiatek is playing in Dubai this week. That opens the door for Rybakina. She can move up to No. 2 and maybe chip away at that gap at the top.

She’s actually leading in the Race to Riyadh, too, the annual race that decides who makes it to the season-ending WTA Finals.

Before Dubai got underway, reporters asked Rybakina if she’s thinking about grabbing the No. 1 spot this year. She didn’t hesitate. “Well, it’s definitely a goal,” she said. Still, she knows it’s not just about her; how the other players perform matters, too. The season’s long, and there’s no room to slow down. “You need to improve every day,” she said. “We have so many tournaments. You need to catch up, and you need to keep on going.”

She’s honest; she wants to climb higher, win another Slam, and keep pushing. “Definitely, that’s the goal,” she said. “We’ll see just how this season goes.”

She’s 26 now, and besides that Wimbledon title in 2022, people want to know what surface she likes best after grass. “Probably the hard courts,” she said, but she’s quick to point out she’s done well everywhere, even on clay, even if that part of the season is short. “I think I can play on all the surfaces,” she said. “Definitely the faster ones are better for me, for my game.”

As for Dubai, it’s home. She lives there, trains there, and knows the courts even if they resurface them before tournaments. “I really love Dubai,” she said. “I’ve been practising and doing pre-season on these courts. Everything is familiar. So yeah, it’s good.”

Emma Raducanu’s got a new opponent for the Dubai Tennis Championships after some last-minute drama. Elisabetta Cocciaretto, who’s been on a real run lately, pulled out just hours before their match was supposed to happen. Cocciaretto, fresh off a big week in Doha where she beat Coco Gauff and made the quarter-finals, tried to keep the momentum going in Dubai. She had barely any time to catch her breath, lost in Doha, hopped on a plane, then jumped straight into Dubai qualifying. She won two matches to make the main draw, but her body gave out. She’s out with a thigh injury.

So now, it’s Antonia Ruzic stepping in as a lucky loser. She’s facing Raducanu in the fourth match on Court 2 on Monday. The news dropped just as play was getting underway in Dubai. And honestly, the tournament organisers must be tearing their hair out. There have been so many withdrawals that Ruzic is actually the sixth lucky loser who’s made it into the main draw. She lost in qualifying to Rebecca Sramkova, but here she is anyway. The same thing happened for Anastasia Zakharova, Hailey Baptiste, Peyton Stearns, Magdalena Frech, and Kamilla Rakhimova, all out in qualifying, all in the main draw now.

Cocciaretto just ran out of steam. After her deep run in Doha, she lost to Ostapenko on Thursday, and by Friday, she was already back on the court in Dubai, beating Donna Vekic in the first round of qualifying. Then she took out Zakharova to book her spot in the main draw, but the packed schedule caught up to her.

She’s not alone, either. Karolina Muchova, who just won her first WTA 1000 title in Doha, also pulled out of Dubai, chalking it up to a “change of schedule". Maria Sakkari and Olympic champ Qinwen Zheng both withdrew because they’re sick. And the biggest gut punch for the tournament? World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka and No. 2 Iga Swiatek both dropped out.

Sabalenka hasn’t played since losing the Australian Open final. Swiatek lost to Sakkari in the Doha quarters and admitted she’s not happy with her game right now; she wants to work on some new things, so she’s taking some time off.

Tournament director Salah Tahlak didn’t hide his frustration. He told The National that he thinks players who pull out late should face bigger penalties. “It was an unfortunate surprise to get news of the withdrawal of Aryna and Iga. And the reasons for withdrawal were a bit strange. Iga said she wasn't mentally ready to compete, while Sabalenka said she has some minor injuries,” he said.

As for Raducanu, this is her first Dubai match since last year’s weird scene with a fixated fan. She was left in tears after a man with a bit of an obsession showed up at her match with Muchova. She played on but lost in straight sets. The WTA later put out a statement saying the guy was spotted again during her match and then kicked out. He’s now banned from all WTA events until they finish a threat assessment.