World No 1 Aryna Sabalenka was left stunned after being beaten by Ekaterina Alexandrova in the last 32 at the Qatar Open on Tuesday.

A tightly fought contest saw world No 26 Alexandrova earn a 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7-5) win over Sabalenka, who was playing in her first match since her defeat in the Australian Open final last month.

Alexandrova came from a break down twice in the third set and held serve twice before earning victory in two hours and 36 minutes, setting up a last-16 clash with Elise Mertens.

Alexandrova defeated Emma Raducanu 6-3 7-5 on Sunday, subjecting the Brit to a third straight first-round loss and a fourth in a row in all tournaments following her third-round exit to Swiatek at the Australian Open when she was thumped 6-1 6-0.

Earlier, Coco Gauff suffered an early exit at the WTA 1000 in Qatar, sinking to a straight-sets defeat to Marta Kostyuk in the second round after an error-strewn performance.

The world No 3 was beaten 6-2 7-5 in Doha in her first match since being knocked out of the Australian Open at the quarter-final stage by Paula Badosa last month.

Gauff – who made 39 unforced errors and hit only eight winners – handed Kostyuk two match points with successive double faults, her sixth and seventh of the match, in the 12th game of the second set.

The Ukrainian converted the second of those when her opponent slapped a backhand into the net and will now face Poland’s Magda Linette or Magdalena Frech in the last 16.

Kostyuk, the world No 21, said in her on-court interview: “Coco is an incredible fighter. We always have incredible matches. I tried to stick to what I had to do. I’m very happy it worked out in two sets.”

Gauff won fewer than half her first-serve points in the first set en route to being broken three times, while she then lost serve twice in the second set after being 3-1 up.

World No 2 Iga Swiatek, who is chasing a fourth successive Qatar Open title, began her tournament with a 6-3 6-2 victory over Maria Sakkari on Monday.

Watch the ATP and WTA Tours, as well as the US Open, live on Sky Sports in 2025 or stream with NOW and the Sky Sports app