Young athletes from Turkmenistan demonstrated impressive results at the 3rd Asian Junior Tennis Tournament, which ended in Doha, Qatar. Turkmen tennis players took the entire podium in both men's and women's competitions among players under 14 years old. This was reported by the publication “Turkmenistan: Golden Age”.
In the men's singles, 12 years old Ali Geldiyev made a real breakthrough, first winning in the qualification against Majed Albloushi (United Arab Emirates) - 6:0, 6:0 and Roland Guo (USA) - 6:0, 6:1, and then in the main draw he won five more victories, beating Andrej Rakic (Serbia) - 6:1, 6:1, Mithun Sendikumara (India) - 6:2, 6:7, 6:4, Salman Alamy (Saudi Arabia) - 6:2, 6:2, Emirkhan Rustamov (Turkmenistan) - 6:3, 6:4 and Suleyman Hudayberdyev (Turkmenistan) - 6:7, 6:0, 7:5.
Emirhan Rustamov took third place. Geldiyev also added a victory in doubles with Yunus Annamyradov to his success. On the way to this success, they won four times, winning successively against the pair Abdullah Abdullah/Faisal Alfakhra from Qatar - 6:0, 6:0, then prevailed over the duo Dovud Baikuziev (Uzbekistan)/David Mario Stefan Raducan (Romania) - 6:3, 6:4, in the semi-finals of the tournament they defeated Timur Ahmetov (Kazakhstan) and Mithun Sendikumara (India) - 6:2, 6:4, and in the final convincingly prevailed over Daniel Carvalho Becker (Brazil) and Andrej Rakic (Serbia) - 6:3, 6:1.
In the women's singles tournament, the first place was taken by the first racket of Turkmenistan Ilima Guseinova, without giving up a single game in the final to her compatriot Aynur Annamyradova - 6:0, 6:0. The top three was closed by another representative of Turkmenistan - Aylara Kakabayeva.
It should be noted that on the way to the podium, Ilima Guseynova also won against Sofia Churkina (Kazakhstan) – 6:1, 6:0, Ona Kildisite (Lithuania) – 6:1, 6:0 and Nazli Hudaykuliyeva (Turkmenistan) – 6:2, 6:1.
In the girls' doubles, Turkmen athletes Ilima Huseynova and Aylara Kakabayeva also won. In the semifinals, they beat Dana Khalifa (Qatar) and Ona Kildisite (Lithuania) - 6:2, 6:1, and in the final, they beat their compatriots Ainur Annamyradova and Sulgun Ishankuliyeva, who were seeded second - 6:2, 6:2.
The tournament, held under the auspices of the Asian Tennis Federation (ATF), brought together athletes from more than 20 countries, including representatives from Europe, South America and the United States.
