Global primary Aryna Sabalenka and quantity 3 Coco Gauff have each been knocked out in the second one spherical of the Qatar Open.
Sabalenka was once crushed by way of Ekaterina Alexandrova on the WTA 1,000 tournament in Doha, whilst Gauff misplaced to Marta Kostyuk.
Russian Alexandrova, who beat Emma Raducanu within the first spherical, got here from a spoil down two times within the 3rd set and held serve two times in opposition to three-time Grand Slam champion Sabalenka.
The arena quantity 26 then held her nerve within the 3rd set tie-break to safe a 3-6 6-3 7-6 win.
The 30-year-old, who received a WTA Excursion identify in Austria final week, will play Belgium’s Elise Mertens within the final 16.
Ukrainian Kostyuk, the sector quantity 21, fought again from 3-1 down in the second one set to wrap up a 6-2 7-5 victory over Gauff in simply 73 mins.
This is a 2d successive defeat for Gauff, who won a bye within the first spherical and was once taking part in for the primary time since she misplaced to Paula Badosa within the quarter-finals of the Australian Open final month.
The 2023 US Open champion was once undone by way of seven double faults and 39 unforced mistakes whilst she controlled simply 8 winners.
Gauff had received her final 17 suits in opposition to warring parties ranked outdoor the highest 20 ahead of going through Kostyuk.
The 22-year-old will now face the winner of an all-Polish tie between Magda Linette and Magdalena Frech.
In different places, former Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina claimed a 6-2 6-4 win in opposition to American Peyton Stearns, whilst Jasmine Paolini – final yr’s Wimbledon and French Open runner-up – defeated Caroline Garcia 6-3 6-4.
3-time Grand Slam finalist Ons Jabeur arrange a gathering with former Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin after beating global quantity 8 Qinwen Zheng of China 6-4 6-2.
It was once the Tunisian’s first win in opposition to a top-10 opponent since final yr’s Madrid Open after suffering with harm.
Slovakia’s Rebecca Sramkova fought again from a collection down to overcome twelfth seed Mirra Andreeva 3-6 6-3 7-5, whilst American 6th seed Jessica Pegula beat Elina Svitolina 6-3, 7-6 (7-3).
Linda Noskova received 6-2 6-3 in opposition to Kazakhstan’s Yulia Putintseva to arrange a last-16 assembly with three-time protecting champion Iga Swiatek.
