Following Keys’ maiden Grand Slam win, Sabalenka’s frustration was evident as she smashed her racket on multiple occasions on Rod Laver Arena.

In her first match since that disappointing defeat, Sabalenka exited the Qatar Open at the hands of Ekaterina Alexandrova.

After returning to winning ways in Dubai, Sabalenka’s happiness was shortlived after a straight sets defeat to the in-form Clara Tauson.

Andrea Petkovic notices something ‘off’ about Aryna Sabalenka

Sabalenka is a former champion at the Qatar Open, but suffered a defeat to Alexandrova in her only match at the tournament this year.

This was Sabalenka’s earliest ever exit at the WTA 1000 tournament, and Andrea Petkovic has pinpointed the serve as a weakness in the 26-year-old’s game at the moment.

“Aryna Sabalenka played Alexandrova who was red hot and playing amazing. She had just won Linz and made the semis after that and Aryna lost 7-6 in the third, so it was a good match,” Petkovic said on Rennae Stubbs’ podcast. “It wasn’t like she played a terrible match and lost.

“I will say that you can tell now that something is off with the serve. Her ball toss is a lot higher but what I meant more by it is that she gets broken a lot more and she can’t hold [as she used to].

“Usually when you watch a Sabalenka match and she breaks you are like this match is done, unless something crazy happens.

“Now you don’t have that and you can feel that she doesn’t have that so that gives her a bit of insecurity, so that is just worrisome about the serve. It’s not like she is hitting doubles faults. But in big moments because she doesn’t believe in it, she then pulls back.”

Aryna Sabalenka’s service stats in Doha and Dubai

The Dubai Tennis Championships are statistically Sabalenka’s weakest WTA 1000 tournament, having won only half of her matches at the event.

This continued once again at the 2025 edition of the tournament, with Sabalenka’s service stats particularly noticeable in her defeat to Tauson.

Sabalenka had upped her first serve win percentage against Kudermetova compared to her Doha defeat to Alexandrova, but that plummeted down to 48% against Tauson as her serve was broken on six occasions.

Sabalenka nearly quit tennis due to her serving issues three years ago, at a time where she was hitting over 20 double faults in some matches that would result in her serving underarm.