Halep, Sabalenka may defend their titles in Dubai and Doha early in January

Simona Halep and Aryna Sabalenka have both conquered 3 titles in 2020. Among them, Simona, won the prestigious event in Dubai while Aryna clinched the tournament in Doha.

While these tournaments are commonly played in February, the 2021 will be disrupted by the postponing of the Australian open that will be staged in February. Therefore, the WTA is working on playing some tournaments in the first week of January (Doha and Bubai?) before the players decide to head to Australia.

Many players are training in the Middle East and in that area the travel restrictions are not as severe as the ones in Australia. Therefore there are strong possibilities that the WTA event in Doha and/or the one in Dubai will be played at the beginning of 2021.

The WTA should officialize the new schedules soon.

Simona Halep in 2020

Ranked no.2, the Romanian played her last match on the 4^th of October when she capitulated to Iga Swiatek 6-1 6-2 in the 4^th round of the French Open (draw).

This season Halep has a compiled 23-3 win-loss record. Simona clinched 3 titles in 2020 in Dubai, in Prague and in Rome.

Aryna Sabalenka in 2020

Now ranked no.10, the Belarussian played her last match on the 15^th of November when she defeated Elise Mertens 7-5 6-2 in the final in Linz to win her 8^th career title.

Currently, this season the Belarussian has a composed 29-10 record. Sabalenka conquered 3 titles in 2020 in Doha, in Ostrava and in Linz.

Simona Halep and Aryna Sabalenka played each other 4 times. The head to head is 3-1 for Halep. The last time that they played each other, Simona Halep won 3-6 6-2 6-2 in the quarter in Dubai (Dubai Duty Free Championships) on the 20^th of February 2020.

You can see them in action in the following highlights.