Amanda Anisimova wins 2025 Dubai Tennis Championship

Amanda Anisimova (Carine06, Wikimedia Commons)

Amanda Anisimova of Freehold Township, New Jersey has won the 2025 Qatar Open in Doha. This was the first Masters 1000 series event of the season (for men or women) in 2025, and the third career WTA title for Anisimova.

In the final, Anisimova defeated Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia, 6-4, 6-3. This was a battle of players who have done very well at the French Open in the past. Anisimova reached the semifinals of the French Open in 2019, and Ostapenko won the French Open in 2017.

This was also a matchup of unseeded finalists. This was only the second time ever that two unseeded players reached the final of the Qatar Open. The first time came in 2015, as Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic beat Victoria Azarenka of Belarus 6-4, 6-3.

In the 2025 final on Saturday, the one key statistic was double faults. Ostapenko had 10, compared to only two for Anisimova.

Anisimova beat three other formidable opponents to taking the title. She beat Azarenka, the 2012 and 2013 Australian Open champion, 6-3, 7-5 in round one, 2025 Australian Open semifinalist and number nine seed Paula Badosa of Spain 6-4, 6-3 in round two, and 2021 United States Open finalist Leylah Annie Fernandez of Canada, 6-3, 6-0 in round three.

In 2025, Anisimova ended a three-year run for world number one Iga Swiatek of Poland, who won the Qatar titles in 2022, 2023, and 2024. In 2025, Swiatek reached the semifinals, but lost to Ostapenko, 6-3, 6-1.

Anisimova’s first WTA title came at the COPA Colsanitas in Colombia where she beat Astra Sharma of Perth, Australia in the final, 4-6, 6-4, 6-1. Anisimova’s second WTA title came at the 2022 Melbourne Summer Set. In the final, Anisimova beat Aliaksandra Sasnovich of Belarus, 7-5, 1-6, 6-4.

However, Anisimova and Ostapenko were unable to carry their momentum from Doha to Dubai. In the first round of the Dubai Tennis Championship on Monday, Anisimova lost 6-2, 6-3 to fellow American McCartney Kessler, and Ostapenko lost 6-3, 6-3 to Moyuka Uchijima of Japan.