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Ashleigh Barty's return to the court after a resting a shoulder injury has resulted in a loss to Aryna Sabalenka at the round-robin WTA Elite Trophy event.

Ashleigh Barty will be up against it to make the semi-finals for consecutive years at the WTA Elite Trophy after a straight sets defeat in the first round of the round robin event.

Power-hitting Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka had all the answers on Tuesday, dispatching the Australian 6-4 6-4.

In her first tournament in a month after resting a shoulder injury, Barty was sluggish out of the blocks, losing her opening service game.

It was the only break of the set as the Queenslander struggled to make inroads on the towering Sabalenka's serve.

The second set stayed on serve until Barty fashioned a break for a 3-2 lead but her failure to consolidate quickly cost her.

Sabalenka won three consecutive games before ultimately serving out the match.

It was deja vu for Barty whose last loss on tour was against Sabalenka in the semi-finals at Wuhan last month.

Barty will now struggle to make the semi-finals in Wuhan with only the top player in each of the four three-woman groups progressing.

Caroline Garcia is the other player in her group and she'll need a win against the Frenchwoman and Sabalenka to lose in order to be a chance of going any further in the tournament.

The tournament features the next best players who didn't make the eight-woman WTA Finals.