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The 2024 Abu Dhabi Open has officially arrived. As the third edition of the tournament to be held in Saudi Arabia, this is an event that fans are understandably excited about. To clarify, this is a WTA 500 event with some big names involved
Therefore, the Zayed Sports City International Tennis Centre is set to be a venue that will host plenty of entertaining tennis over the coming week. On that note, over the course of the tournament, which runs from February 5th to February 11th, we plan to issue a range of tennis predictions today for each passing round.
So while the tournament progresses, you can easily monitor the action and place a few wagers if you please. Besides that, if you wish to really have your finger on the pulse throughout the 2024 Abu Dhabi Open, you’ll no doubt have a few things in mind that you’ll want to know.
These ‘things’ include the draw, seeds, full schedule, order of play, and even predictions concerning who might win the tournament. With that in mind, I am pleased to say that the following sections will disclose all of the key details needed for a thorough Abu Dhabi Open preview.
So – ready to rumble? Let’s begin.
2024 Abu Dhabi Open – tournament schedule
Contents
The Abu Dhabi Open tournament begins on Monday, February 5th. This is when the first few matches are played and completed – all first-round matches, of course. From here, the tournament follows a progressive knockout process until it reaches its conclusion on Sunday, February 11th.
Subsequently, you can expect to witness plenty of top-level WTA tennis between those dates. And since we are in the thick of this schedule right now, you won’t need to wait too long to witness the next set of matches.
Furthermore, now that you know how the schedule looks from an overall perspective, let’s address each day of play:
- February 5th and 6th – first round matches
- February 7th and 8th – second round matches
- February 9th – quarter-final matches
- February 10th – semi-final matches
- February 11th – final
For those who are hoping to track the scheduled matches on each individual day, you can observe the order of play one day in advance. For example, the order of play for February 9th will be available on February 10th, and so on and so forth.
Lastly, it isn’t just a singles competition running in Abu Dhabi this week. There is a doubles competition taking place at the same time, and these matches will run in tandem with the singles event.
Abu Dhabi Open 2024 – a breakdown of the draw
Given that the main draw started on Monday, February 5th, of course, we know that the draw has already been made. This is also true for the Abu Dhabi Open doubles competition, and the full draws can be checked out on the main tournament website.
But since the goal here is to give you a preview of the most important draw information, that’s precisely what I will cover now.
The numbers
Before looking at the top contenders in this tournament, it’s beneficial to know the numbers. With that in mind, the Abu Dhabi Open is a 28-player draw for singles and a 16-pair draw for doubles. Since this doesn’t fit the exact numbers needed for a smooth draw, 4 seeds will start the event in round two of the singles tournament.
Of these 28 players, 8 of them are seeds, 4 of them are wildcards, 6 of them are qualifiers, 2 of them are lucky losers, and the rest are direct entrants.
Top seeds
As referenced above, the 2024 Abu Dhabi Open has 8 seeds in the main draw. To avoid any confusion, a ‘ninth seed’ has been thrown in following the withdrawal of the fifth seed, Jelena Ostapenko.
Furthermore, three of these eight seeds are ranked inside the WTA top 10, which makes this tournament very strong indeed.
As for who these 8 seeds are, let me list them right now:
- Seed one – Elena Rybakina
- Seed two – Ons Jabeur
- Seed three – Maria Sakkari
- Seed four – Barbora Krejcikova
- Seed six – Beatriz Haddad Maia
- Seed seven – Daria Kasatkina
- Seed eight – Liudmila Samsonova
- Seed nine – Veronika Kudermetova
Wildcards and qualifiers
With a total of 4 wildcards and 6 qualifiers, there are plenty of significant names to observe within these additional categories. Again, let me list these names so that you know who to lookout for in the Abu Dhabi Open draw:
Wildcards
- Naomi Osaka
- Wang Xiyu
- Alexandra Eala
- Emma Raducanu
Qualifiers
- Danielle Collins
- Diane Parry
- Heather Watson
- Linda Noskova
- Bernarda Pera
- Ashlyn Krueger
Intriguing matches
At the time of writing, a few first-round matches have been completed for the 2024 Abu Dhabi Open. But fear not – for there are still a ton of great matches coming up over the next week. To add to that, I’d like to point out a few key matches for you to watch, as I believe that the following matches should be highly entertaining:
- Raducanu vs Jabeur – round two
- Rybakina vs Osaka/Collins – round two
- Kasatkina vs Sakkari – quarter-finals
- Haddad Maia vs Linette – round two
Of these four matches, just one of them is guaranteed to occur, and that match is Raducanu vs Jabeur. As for the others, I’ve listed them as they have a likely chance of coming to fruition. However, only time will confirm whether these matches are set to be played at the Abu Dhabi Open or not.
Predictions for the 2024 Abu Dhabi Open
To wrap up this overview of the Abu Dhabi Open 2024, I’d like to issue a couple of quick predictions for the tournament.
Outright winner – Elena Rybakina
As the number one seed, it goes without saying that Elena Rybakina is the outright favourite to win the tournament. And I am going for Rybakina because she won the Brisbane International in January, while she has had plenty of time to rest and recover since her early loss in the 2024 Australian Open.
Possible underdog winner – Beatriz Haddad Maia
Haddad Maia is ranked 13 in the world right now, and she is the sixth seed for the Abu Dhabi Open. She hasn’t been in great form in 2024, however, hence she is an underdog for this title. Yet she looked impressive in round one, and if she hits top form, she definitely has a shot.
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