Aryna Sabalenka suffered a shock loss in her first post-Australian Open match because the Belarusian is out of the WTA 1000 match in Doha.Â
After a first-round bye, the highest seed met Ekaterina Alexandrova in her opener on the Qatar Open.Â
And though the Belarusian made a great begin and received the primary set, she nonetheless ended up dropping after the world No. 26 accomplished a shocking 3-6 6-3 7-6 (5) win.Â
Early within the match, Sabalenka claimed a break within the fourth sport but additionally saved a complete of seven break factors throughout two completely different video games.Â
After failing to understand a few of her first-set alternatives, Alexandrova began the second set with a 2-0 lead – blew her early break – however broke the world No. 1 once more within the eighth sport for a 5-3 lead earlier than serving out for a decider within the following sport.
Within the third set, the Belarusian was twice up by a break however the Russian twice got here again to finally pressure a tie-break – by which she opened a 6-3 lead earlier than changing her third match level to finish her comeback win.
Aryna Sabalenka and Ekaterina Alexandrova© X screenshot
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Sabalenka indicated that she did not have large expectations for Doha
After arriving on the Qatar Open two weeks after a really painful Australian Open ultimate loss, the 26-year-old instructed that she would use Doha and subsequent week’s Dubai as “a preparation” for Indian Wells and Miami.Â
“The schedule is actually pretty tough, especially if you make it to the last stage of the Australian Open, then you don’t have much time to recover and prepare yourself for these big events,” the world No. 1 defined in her pre-tournament press convention.
“I believe I’ll just take these two tournaments as a preparation for the Sunshine one, and I’ll try to build my tennis, and probably take my tennis to the next level in these two events.”
It is going to be fascinating to see how Sabalenka does in Dubai subsequent.
