The inaugural Mubadala Abu Dhabi Open came to a close on Sunday with Swiss Olympic gold medalist Belinda Bencic becoming the tournament’s very first champion.

The world No. 9 put in a brave performance in the final, saving three match points late in the second set en route to a 1-6, 7-6(8), 6-4 victory over powerful Russian Liudmila Samsonova.

Here’s what we learned from the WTA 500-level event in the UAE capital.

Bencic keeps rolling

The week in Abu Dhabi further cemented what we already knew — that Bencic is in great form and enjoying a brilliant start to her 2023 campaign.

The 25-year-old has now won two titles in as many months — she also triumphed in Adelaide in January — and her success in the UAE has taken her to the top of the WTA match-wins leaderboard for the season, with 12 victories against just two losses.

Bencic entered the final with a 0-3 record against Samsonova and struggled to make any headway on the Russian’s serve through the first eight games of their clash on Sunday.

She dug deep to create an opening in the second set but failed to serve for it at 5-3, getting broken as Samsonova forced a tiebreak. Bencic stood her ground in the breaker, saving three championship points with some pure hustle, and somehow walked away with the trophy.

Bencic joked earlier in the week about the “Tursunov effect,” referring to her coach Dmitry Tursunov, who joined her camp ahead of the start of this season, and she paid tribute to her team on Sunday for helping her stick with a fierce Samsonova.

“I’m happy I stayed really tough with the head. Sometimes you can be like, ‘OK, it’s match point, I’m just going to get out of here, I’m losing, and just mentally walk away. But I did well not to think that way. I felt like my team was pushing me to go for it, especially in the tiebreak,” said Bencic after the win.

Bencic, who flew to Doha straight after the Abu Dhabi final to take part in the Qatar Open, is hoping she can translate her success from the smaller tour events into the bigger tournaments as she continues to search for that maiden Grand Slam trophy.

“It’s a title, one per month now, hopefully that (will) continue,” joked the Swiss, referring to her trophy runs so far this season.

“I’m just really grateful. It’s not like you’re looking at the title before the tournament; of course you want to win but you take it match by match. There are tough draws in every tournament you play. You can just do your best every week. I feel like I’m improving a lot, and having this belief in me that I can win titles, and hopefully it’s going to be like that also with the big titles. I’m just trying to give myself a chance and work really hard for it.”

Samsonova closing in on top 10

She came agonizingly close to extending her perfect record in WTA finals to 5-0, and despite the loss, Samsonova can take plenty of positives from her week in Abu Dhabi.

The 24-year-old will make her top-15 debut on Monday and has the firepower to threaten the very best on tour.

Samsonova started the season by losing a tight clash with Aryna Sabalenka in the Adelaide second round. Sabalenka has yet to lose a match in 2023 — is a perfect 11-0 — and claimed a maiden Grand Slam title with victory over Elena Rybakina in the Australian Open final last month.

Sabalenka and Rybakina both play a power game that has earned them major trophies, and Samsonova, who also possesses the same brand of boom-boom tennis, is drawing confidence and inspiration from her fellow big-hitters.

“In Adelaide I played against Aryna and I was the first player to play 7-6, 7-6 with her in that (stretch), because she’s unbeatable for now. I had my chances and I felt so much confidence. They are both big-hitters, my game is similar, and I can improve from them,” said Samsonova.

Abu Dhabi a welcome addition to the Middle East swing

It’s no secret that the WTA calendar has been seriously affected by the suspension of all Chinese and Russian tournaments, and it hasn’t been easy creating a seamless schedule that doesn’t force players to go back and forth across the globe to compete.

So when players found out that Abu Dhabi was hosting a 500-level tournament, which would expand the Middle East swing to three weeks, many jumped at the opportunity to participate, knowing 2,000 ranking points and some generous prize money were up for grabs across Abu Dhabi, Doha and Dubai in February.

“When I knew about this tournament, everyone was very happy. My team said, ‘OK we go there,’ because to stay here, to have a one-hour flight between each tournament, it’s amazing. I like these type of things. For us players it’s very helpful,” said Samsonova.

Abu Dhabi top seed Daria Kasatkina shared Samsonova’s sentiments and explained how tough it got last year, traveling long distances each week on tour.

“It’s amazing. Especially compared to the end of last year,” said Kasatkina of the three-week Middle East swing.

“There was a stretch of Tokyo, Ostrava, San Diego, Guadalajara, and then if you qualify for the WTA Finals, then Fort Worth. So it’s crazy. I know it’s because of all the circumstances we’ve had during these years, but honestly it’s crazy, it’s very difficult to enjoy playing, enjoy doing your work while you’re just exhausted.

“Traveling, plus jet-lag, plus going to Guadalajara, I was going crazy honestly because of the conditions of the altitude. This is tough. So for sure it’s better when we have a block of tournaments in the same country, or region.”

Organizers deem year one a success

Tournament owners IMG moved the WTA sanction from St Petersburg, Russia, to Abu Dhabi, and the announcement was made barely three weeks before kick-off.

It gave organizers limited time to promote the Mubadala Abu Dhabi Open, but by the end of the week the stadium looked about 60 to 70 percent full and the tennis village came alive during the weekend.

“It went really well. We had five weeks to prepare and it’s been a really successful year,” Vickie Gunnarsson, director of tennis events at IMG, told Arab News.

“Operationally, everything has gone super smooth. We’ve had nine players in the top 20. So big success, lots of partners have come to support us and we had really great tennis across the week.”

Gunnarsson believes that the tournament has all the necessary ingredients to make it a strong annual fixture on the UAE sports calendar and dismissed any suggestions that the market may be saturated with three tournaments held in the Gulf in the same month.

“I think it’s positive for the region, it’s very positive for women’s tennis in particular, and for the players because they get to stay in one place and don’t have to travel so much, and it’s a really great way to earn many ranking points early on in the season in one place, so for them it’s excellent,” she said.

“And for the region I think it’s excellent, too. It’s supporting women’s professional tennis, you have an influx of tourists coming, and also really empowering women on all kinds of aspects of the society, they get to watch role models and just the belief that I can do something with my life, whatever it is, if I dream big, it can become a reality.”