IT WAS the result no one saw coming. Despite winning in Linz a fortnight ago, Russian Ekaterina Alexandrova was given little to no hope of beating the best hardcourt player in the world in Aryna Sabalenka in Doha, but then the world number 26 tore up the script.

In a match that had to be seen to be believed, Alexandrova extended her winning run to six on the bounce, defeating the world’s best player in a hard-fought two-hour and 37-minute contest, 3-6 6-3 7-6. One of the finishes of the year, Alexandrova finally celebrated when saluting 7-5 in the deciding third set tiebreak to advance through to the Qatar Open WTA 1000 event.

Sabalenka had won the past two matches against Alexandrova to lead the head-to-head 4-3, but the Russian has been in some great form of late, and was up for the task. An early break to Sabalenka moved the needle a little in the first set, with the Belarussian swatting away four break points in game five to race to a 4-1 lead.

Despite Alexandrova gaining a fifth break point chance, Sabalenka again had what it took to steady, hold and then eventually serve out the set to go up 6-3. However it was a case of seventh time lucky for the Russian, who broke in the second game of the next set. That enjoyment lasted all of a few minutes before being broken the very next game.

The Russian deserved to get a break, and that came a few games later, where from 3-3, she won the last three games of the set to level the match in the 95th minute. Heading to a decider, Sabalenka stormed to a 2-0 lead, only for her opponent to break back immediately and show she was not going anywhere.

Both players fought gallantly, with another trading of breaks midway through the set, before ultimately it went all the way to a tiebreaker. The pair again traded blows, but when the world number 26 went 6-3 up, the crowd was stunned.

Funnily enough each player struggled on their own service points during the tiebreaker, with the world number one winning all of her points off Alexandrova’s serve, while the Russian won just one point on her own serve. That might have been the difference however, with Sabalenka slashing the deficit from three match points to one, though could not hold on that decisive 12th point, and Alexandrova celebrated causing the upset of the year.

“It was a very difficult match to play against her, because she’s a fighter and she plays every single point. not matter what,” Alexandrova said post-match. 

“I told myself before the match that you just need to do the maximum you can do tonight, and if you lose, you know that you’ve tried everything.”

In a remarkable statistic, there was nothing that separated the players statistically with each having a perfect 1.00 dominance rating. The Belarusian was always going to dictate most of the play, as she hit 46 winners for 53 unforced errors, while Alexandrova ended with numbers of 25 and 36 respectively.

However Alexandrova was able to win 63 per cent of her first serve points compared to Sabalenka’s 58 per cent, while converting the majority of points once she got it past the first few shots. Sabalenka won three more points than her opponent, but her failure to capitalise off her own serve in the tiebreak was telling.

Remarkably Sabalenka’s shock loss was far from the only surprise of the day, with tournament third seed Coco Gauff also ousted in straight sets, 6-2 7-5. The American was among two other Top 10 seeds – and four total seeds – to bow out on the day, as in-form Paula Badosa went down to hard-hitting American Amanda Anisimova.

Tunisian Ons Jabeur grabbed a great scalp against the out-of-sorts Qinwen Zheng, while Rebecca Sramkova and Jelena Ostapenko both took out Russians in Mirra Andreeva and Liudmila Samsonova. From the non-seeded matches, there were all-Polish and all-American battles, as Magda Linette and Sofia Kenin got the better of their respective compatriots, Magdalena Frech and Alycia Parks.

Of the seeded winners, Italian Jasmine Paolini and United States’ Jessica Pegula both beat former Top 5 players in Caroline Garcia and Elina Svitolina respectively, while Kazakh Elena Rybakina rolled on with a 6-2 6-4 win over American Peyton Stearns. Russian 10th seed Daria Kasatkina was the other Round of 32 victor, advancing following a 6-2 6-3 triumph over Armenian Elina Avanesyan.

2025 QATAR OPEN WTA 1000 – ROUND OF 32 RESULTS:

Ekaterina Alexandrova (RUS) defeated [1] Aryna Sabalenka (BLR) 3-6 6-3 7-6
Marta Kostyuk (UKR) defeated [3] Coco Gauff (USA) 6-2 7-5
[4] Jasmine Paolini (ITA) defeated [WC] Caroline Garcia (FRA) 6-3 6-4
[5] Elena Rybakina (KAZ) defeated Peyton Stearns (USA) 6-2 6-4
[6] Jessica Pegula (USA) defeated Elina Svitolina (UKR) 6-3 7-6
Ons Jabeur (TUN) defeated [7] Qinwen Zheng (CHN) 6-4 6-2
Amanda Anisimova (USA) defeated [9] Paula Badosa (ESP) 6-4 6-3
[10] Daria Kasatkina (RUS) defeated Elina Avanesyan (ARM) 6-2 6-3
Rebecca Sramkova (SVK) defeated [12] Mirra Andreeva (RUS) 3-6 6-3 7-5
Jelena Ostapenko (LAT) defeated [16] Liudmila Samsonova (RUS) 7-6 7-5
Magda Linette (POL) defeated Magdalena Frech (POL) 7-5 5-7 6-4
[WC] Sofia Kenin (USA) defeated [Q] Alycia Parks (USA) 7-6 3-6 6-2