TWO FIRST-time WTA Tour 1000 finalists will face off in a historic Dubai Tennis Championships final after both Mirra Andreeva and Clara Tauson beat their more experienced, Grand Slam-final opponents in the semi-finals of the tournament overnight.

Andreeva in particular will break special ground, with the 17-year-old becoming the youngest ever WTA 1000 finalist since the format was introduced in 2009. She knocked off sixth seed Elena Rybakina 6-4 4-6 6-3 just a day after accounting for another Grand Slam winner in Iga Swiatek. It was far from smooth sailing for her as well, being a break down at 1-3 in the deciding third set beffore coming away with the win in two hours and 16 minutes.

The 12th seed hit four more winners than Rybakina (36-32) and eight less unforced errors (42-50), while winning 69 per cent of her first serve points. Her efficiency with her first serve was shaky at best – 53 per cent – but she came up clutch when needed in the deciding set, with 19 of 28 (68 per cent) going in.

“Honestly, after playing in Doha and losing tough second round, having a lot of opportunities, I just felt a bit down,” Andreeva said post-match. “Not depressed. I was, ‘Well, maybe now this time I’m not playing my best tennis, so OK, it’s fine.’ Last year I didn’t play so good on these courts in Dubai. I was like, ‘Well, OK, whatever. I’m just going to play. We’re going to see.’

“In the end when you don’t think about what’s going to happen, it always ends up being one of the best tournaments of your career. I don’t know if it’s a paradox or something, but it’s just like this.”

In the other semi-final, talented Dane Tauson defeated 14th seeded Czech Karolina Muchova. Tauson won 6-4 6-7 6-3 in an equally hard-fought contest, overcoming a second set comeback from the French Open finalist to secure her spot in the final.

Much like Andreeva, Tauson had some challenging moments in the deciding set, needing to save three break points in the fifth game, before closing out the match winning the last three games to salute in two hours and 54 minutes.

Tauson hit a whopping 48 winners – including nine aces compared to Muchova’s 52 and six repsecitvely, while both players at such a high level there were just the 61 unforced errors compared to the 100 winners. Tauson’s 74 per cent success rate on her first serve was key, while she broke four times to two during the course of the match.

Tauson will enter her first WTA1000 final, having come off a title already in 2025 after saluting in Auckland last month, albeit after Naomi Osaka retired mid-match. She is the lower ranked of the two finalists, but is in some outstanding form heading into the decider. Regardless of the result, the Dane has already entered the top 30 and is eighth in the Live Race Ranking.