Aryna Sabalenka left the Qatar Open with a clear message for her millions of fans.
The World number one was keen to return to winning ways after Sabalenka suffered a crushing defeat to Madison Keys in the Australian Open final.
But Sabalenka was upset by Ekaterina Alexandrova, who continued her good form after capturing the Linz Open title on February 2.
Alexandrova backed up her win over Emma Raducanu in the opening round, meaning she has defeated two Grand Slam champions back-to-back to reach the round of 16.
Aryna Sabalenka reacts to shock Qatar Open defeat
The Qatar Open was Aryna Sabalenka’s first tournament since failing to win her third Australian Open title in a row.
The Belarusian was keen to rebound in great fashion following that loss but Alexandrova, who had caused Sabalenka problems before, had other ideas.
To the surprise of many, she came from a set down to defeat the top seed 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(5) and will face Elise Mertens in the last 16.
This was the first time Sabalenka suffered successive defeats since the round robin stage of November’s WTA Finals.
Following the result, the three-time Grand Slam champion took to Instagram with a promise to her fans which read: “Thank you @qatartennis, I’ll be back stronger.”
Aryna Sabalenka loses to Ekaterina Alexandrova on a day of upsets at the Qatar Open
In an unusual turn of events, Sabalenka failed to close out her eighth meeting with Alexandrova, despite being up a break of serve twice in the deciding set.
This is the Russian’s sixth win in a row and her second against a World number one in less than a year, after beating Iga Swiatek when she was the top-ranked player in March 2024.
“It was a very difficult match to play against her, because she’s a fighter and she plays every single point, no matter what,” Alexandrova said after her two-hour and 36-minute victory.
“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.”
Tuesday was a day of upsets at the Qatar Open, as Sabalenka was one of three top 10 players who lost their opening match.
Coco Gauff was beaten by Marta Kostyuk, and Olympic champion Qinwen Zheng continues her poor start to the season by losing to Ons Jabeur.
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