World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka suffered a shocking early exit at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open 2025, falling in her opening match to World No. 26 Ekaterina Alexandrova in a hard-fought three-set battle.

Moments ago, World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka got knocked out of the first round of the Qatar Open (called the Qatar TotalEnergies Open 2025 or Doha Open). Ekaterina Alexandrova defeated Sabalenka in a hard-fought,

Aryna Sabalenka suffered a shock loss in her first post-Australian Open match as the Belarusian is out of the WTA 1000 tournament in Doha. After a first-round bye, the top seed met Ekaterina Alexandrova in her opener at the Qatar Open.

Sabalenka was back competing at the Qatar Open for the first time since 2022, having won the 2020 title in what is the first WTA 1000 event of the season. Alexandrova's reward was a last-16 date with Belgian Elise Mertens.