World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka suffered a surprising second-round exit at the Qatar Open on February 11, losing to Russian Ekaterina Alexandrova 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7/5) in a thrilling match that lasted over two and a half hours.
The Belarusian, making her first appearance since a tough loss to Madison Keys in the Australian Open final, found herself outplayed by Alexandrova, who was in excellent form after winning her fifth WTA title in Linz the previous week. Alexandrova, ranked 26th, rallied from a set down to level the match, with a notable interruption during the second set—a curious cat wandered onto the court, temporarily halting play. The feline, unfazed by the match’s intensity, inspected the action before casually leaving via the player’s entrance.
Alexandrova overcame the disruption and clinched the match in a tense tie-break, winning 7-5. This marked her first win over a top-ranked player in recent months. The result sees Alexandrova progress to the last 16, where she will face Belgium’s Elise Mertens.
Meanwhile, American Coco Gauff also exited in the second round, defeated by Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk 6-2, 7-5. Gauff, who was competing for the first time since a quarter-final loss at the Australian Open, struggled with errors throughout the match, committing seven double faults and 39 unforced errors. Gauff started poorly, falling behind 4-1 after two service breaks, and despite a brief recovery in the second set, she couldn’t hold off Kostyuk, who capitalized on the American’s mistakes to close out the match.
Kostyuk, after the win, praised Gauff’s fighting spirit, saying, “Coco is an incredible fighter. I just stuck to my game.” Kostyuk now moves on to a third-round encounter with Poland’s Magda Linette.
In other notable results, former Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina advanced with a 6-2, 6-4 victory over Peyton Stearns. Rybakina, seeded fifth, cruised through the match despite a brief late wobble in the second set, where she missed three match points while leading 5-0. She eventually closed out the win on her fifth match point and will face Slovakia’s Rebecca Sramkova in the next round.
Chinese seventh seed Zheng Qinwen joined Gauff in crashing out, losing to Ons Jabeur 6-4, 6-2. Jabeur, the three-time Grand Slam finalist, secured her first win over a top-10 player since last year’s Madrid Open, following a battle with injury. Jabeur will now face 2020 Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin.
In other matches, Italian Jasmine Paolini defeated Caroline Garcia 6-3, 6-4, while American Jessica Pegula battled past Elina Svitolina 6-3, 7-6 (7/3). However, Spain’s Paula Badosa was defeated in straight sets by Amanda Anisimova.
Czech teen Linda Noskova also progressed to the last 16, beating Kazakhstan’s Yulia Putintseva 6-2, 6-3. Noskova now faces three-time defending champion Iga Swiatek in a highly anticipated encounter.
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