Tennis
2026-02-04 - Belinda Bencic vs Sonay Kartal
A Sports Betting Pick by FirstDown
Tennis : WTA 500 Abu Dhabi Second Round
Wednesday 4th February 2025 - Scheduled 7pm
1pm (British Time)
Preview
Playing in Abu Dhabi is clearly much to the liking of Belinda Bencic and she has won two of the last three tournaments played here. The defending Champion earned a Bye through the First Round as the top Seed in the tournament and Bencic is going to want a strong response to what was a disappointing Second Round exit at the Australian Open.
Opening up against a Qualifier can be challenging, even for the top players on the Tour and Sonay Kartal has won three matches at the tournament without dropping a set.
The British player reached the Semi Final in Auckland and pushed Elina Svitolina all the way to a final set Tie-Breaker, which is a big achievement considering how well Svitolina played in Melbourne. An early loss in the Australian Open would have been a blow, but Sonay Kartal has had a decent twelve months on the hard courts and that will give her some real confidence and belief.
A lot of credit has to be given to the World Number 61 for having a 3-3 record when facing top 20 Ranked opponents on the hard courts over the last twelve months. Sonay Kartal also has a pretty solid 9-8 record in that time when facing players that come into the match Ranked higher than herself and this is a player that has shown that she can keep the pressure ramped up through strong serving.
With that said, Sonay Kartal will not be intimidated about facing this opponent.
However, it is going to be a significant challenge to beat Belinda Bencic who has won nine matches in a row in Abu Dhabi and who has dropped just four sets in the tournament. The loss in Melbourne would have stung as Belinda Bencic will feel she was the better player in the Second Round, while the World Number 9 has a 21-4 record when facing opponents Ranked outside of the top 20 on the hard courts over the last twelve months.
Belinda Bencic did arrive at the tournament in much stronger form in 2025 having reached the Australian Open Fourth Round, but she did produce plenty of wins last month.
There will be some moments where Belinda Bencic will be challenged by Sonay Kartal and she will need a bit of time to become accustomed with the ball coming back over the net in this first meeting between the players.
At the end of the day, the conditions here have been ideal for Belinda Bencic and the defending Champion can protect her unbeaten record from the last two appearances in Abu Dhabi by winning and doing so in a manner capable of covering this spread.
Prediction
Lay the games with the top Seed who has won the tournament on each of her last two appearances in Abu Dhabi.
The Pick :
Belinda Bencic 2-0 Sonay Kartal
