Turkmen tennis players will compete in the Asian team championship (U-12), which will be held in September this year in Astana. The youth team of Turkmenistan achieved this right for the first time, taking second place at the qualification Central Asian tournament that ended today in Ashgabat, reports the State News Agency of Turkmenistan.
For five days on the courts of the Olympic village, medals and two tickets to the continental championship were contested by boys and girls no older than 12 years old from Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.
The fate of the awards and finalists was decided on the final day of the tournament. In the competition among girls, the first place was taken by the national team of Kazakhstan, which with a score of 3:0 won the team of Uzbekistan, which was awarded silver medals, respectively. Bronze medals went to tennis players from Turkmenistan, who won with the same score over rivals from Tajikistan. At the same time, the wards of the captain of the Turkmen women's team Mirali Hasanov won very confidently, not giving up a single game to their rivals in two singles and one doubles matches. Aylara Kakabayeva, Anna Ponyatova and Nyazli Hudayguliyeva became bronze medalists in the Turkmenistan team.
In the tournament, the boys kept the intrigue to the last. And it was created by Turkmen tennis players, who on the eve won against the national team of Uzbekistan - 3:0 and took a significant step towards winning silver medals and a ticket to the final stage of the Asian Championship. To realize this dream, it only remained to defeat the national team of Tajikistan with the obligatory defeat of the team of Uzbekistan from the tennis players of Kazakhstan.
As expected, in the parallel match, the Kazakhs beat the Uzbeks - 3:0, having won gold medals. And then it became clear that the fate of the second place was in the hands of the Turkmen team.
Wards of the captain of the youth team of Turkmenistan Yuri Rogussky resolutely tuned in to the game. In the first singles match, Ali Geldyyev, a pupil of the Turkmenabat tennis school, beat Ahmad Vositov - 6:2, 6:1. In the second singles, the first number of the team, Suleyman Hudayberdiyev, who trains at the Olympus tennis club in the capital, also confidently defeated Alijon Mirzoev - 6:0.6:2. Ali Geldyyev and Nazargeldy Amangeldyyev, a graduate of the Ashgabat Tennis Academy, completed the defeat of the opponent, having won in doubles against Alijon Mirzoev and Ahmad Vositov - 6:1,6:1.
Earlier, at this regional qualifying tournament held under the auspices of the International (ITF) and Asian (ATF) tennis federations, the team of Turkmenistan has never risen above third place. And now, for the first time, Turkmen tennis players have won silver medals and with them a ticket to the Asian Championship!
The third place went to the team of Uzbekistan, which was the winner at last year's qualifying tournament (U-12) in Tashkent.
At the solemn ceremony of the championship of Central Asia (U-12), its winners and prize-winners from the International Tennis Federation were awarded medals and certificates, and on behalf of the President of Turkmenistan, as well as from the National Leader of the Turkmen people, Chairman of the Halk Maslahaty Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov - valuable gifts.
