Aryna Sabalenka seemingly doesn’t have many expectations for the WTA 1000 tournaments in Doha and Dubai as she simply plans to use them as “a preparation” for Indian Wells and Miami.
This week, the Belarusian is playing her third tournament of the season at the Qatar Open.
So far, the world No. 1 has competed in 12 matches this year – won the Brisbane International before finishing as runner-up at the Australian Open.
In Doha, Sabalenka had a first-round bye as the top seed and is due to meet Ekaterina Alexandrova in the second round, who beat Emma Raducanu on Sunday.
After the Qatar Open, the 26-year-old is also slated to take part in next week’s tournament in Dubai.
Sabalenka: I’m taking Doha, Dubai as a preparation for the Sunshine Double
“The schedule is actually pretty tough, especially if you make it to the last stage of the Australian Open, then you don’t have much time to recover and prepare yourself for these big events,” she explained.
“I believe I’ll just take these two tournaments as a preparation for the Sunshine one, and I’ll try to build my tennis, and probably take my tennis to the next level in these two events.”
Truth be told, Sabalenka hasn’t had much success during the Middle East swing over the last several years.
Since winning the Qatar Open in 2020,…
