Tennis BETTING PREVIEW - Paula Badosa vs Elina Svitolina

Tennis

2026-02-17 - Paula Badosa vs Elina Svitolina

A Sports Betting Preview by FirstDown

Paula Badosa vs Elina Svitolina
Tennis : WTA 1000 Dubai Second Round
Tuesday 17th February 2025 - Scheduled 4pm
12pm (British Time)

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Preview

Injury has been one of the biggest issues for Paula Badosa after cracking through on the Tour and reaching World Number 2 in 2022.

She has entered the WTA 1000 event in Dubai as the World Number 70 and that is because Paula Badosa has not been able to get herself healthy to defend the Ranking Points she had been producing.

Much of the second half of the season was missed, which meant Badosa lost the Ranking Points she had produced by winning titles and reaching the business end at a number of the North American hard court events leading into the US Open and then into the Asian Swing. Paula Badosa reached the Australian Open Semi Final thirteen months ago, but was beaten in the Second Round at the 2026 tournament, while she has to reach the Fourth Round in Dubai to match the run put together here in 2025.

At full health there is no doubting how good Paula Badosa can be on the hard courts- she has a solid first serve and the heavy, aggressive groundstrokes had propelled her up the World Rankings.

However, it has been very difficult finding her rhythm on the return from injury and the numbers over the last six weeks have been disappointing, which leaves Paula Badosa vulnerable in this Second Round match.

A solid First Round win has to give Badosa confidence, but she may need to find another level to compete with Elina Svitolina, even after the latter had a poor showing in Doha last week.

That was the first tournament played since Elina Svitolina reached the Australian Open Semi Final and Elina Svitolina will be looking for a much more impactful run before heading to the United States for the big events coming up.

Out of the two players, Paula Badosa will still feel her first serve is the big weapon, although Svitolina will look at her second serve and return numbers as being a key for herself. If she gets enough looks at the second serve, the World Number 9 has to be given the edge, while the mental advantage is with Elina Svitolina having won both previous matches against Badosa.

When they met on the hard courts in a Billie Jean King Cup match on the hard courts in September, Elina Svitolina created more than double the number of Break Points compared with Paula Badosa.

She also won 10% more points behind serve, and you have to believe the veteran can find a way to cover this spread set as the Second Round is played in Dubai.

Prediction

Lay the games with the higher Ranked player against the former World Number 2.

The Pick :

Paula Badosa 0-2 Elina Svitolina

FIXED ODDS BETTING :

I'll back Elina Svitolina - 3.5 Games at 1.91 with Cloudbet