The International Tennis Federation (ITF) Level 2 regional coaching seminar for high-class players has ended in Turkmenistan. It was held at the Tennis Complex of the Ashgabat Olympic Village, where the introductory course “Play Tennis” for training coaches was held in 2020, and a higher-level coaching seminar Level 1 was held in 2023. Now, for the first time, an educational regional coaching seminar of the ITF professional level Level 2 was held here. This became possible due to the assignment of the status of “Educational and Training Center of the Asian Region” to the Turkmen Tennis Complex. The corresponding certificate was presented on June 1, 2024, at a ceremony in the Olympic Village of the capital by the ITF representative for the development of tennis in Asia, Seyedamir Borghei.
The ITF Level 2 Regional Coaching Seminar brought together 15 coaches – 11 from Turkmenistan and 4 from Bahrain, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Uzbekistan, who had an excellent opportunity to improve their professional level to train high-class tennis players. The course lecturers were famous specialists of the International Tennis Federation – Seyedamir Borghei from Iran and Igor Shelyakin from Uzbekistan.
Over the course of 12 days, the seminar participants completed 37 online courses on the ITF Online Academy platform, after which they were admitted to five exams related to playing practice on the court, conducting individual and group lessons, testing and writing an essay. In case of successful certification, the course participants will receive an international Level 2 certificate, which confirms a high level of training and gives the right to represent players at the largest tournaments. In addition, this is a large store of knowledge that a coach acquires to improve his qualifications.
“The International Tennis Federation believes that to prepare successful players it is important to have three “s” – a court, a coach and competitions. If all three of these elements are present, then it is possible for high-class tennis players to emerge, who need a court, competitions and a coach to improve their skills. That is why we are now focusing heavily on the educational training of specialists,” said Eziz Dovletov, Chairman of the Turkmenistan Tennis Federation (TTF) and Vice President of the Asian Tennis Federation (ATF), during the seminar.
According to him, the number of tennis players in Turkmenistan is growing every year. And in order for them to participate in prestigious competitions more often, time must be devoted to training specialists and coaches.
“During the two weeks of the ITF Level 2 course, our coaches received a wealth of knowledge with which they will prepare worthy athletes of a higher level. Therefore, by the end of the year we will already have a sufficient pool of coaches with a Level 2 degree. And this will give impetus to even greater development of tennis not only in the capital, but also in the velayats,” E. Dovletov emphasized.
He also added that currently the educational system of the Turkmenistan Tennis Federation is licensed and approved by the International Tennis Federation, which enables the TTF to independently conduct “Play tennis” courses and award certificates on behalf of the ITF. In this regard, the Turkmenistan Tennis Federation has planned to hold a “Play tennis” seminar for entry-level coaches at the Asian Region Training Center from August 28 to 31, 2025. The lecturers for this course will be Level 2 professional coaching license holder Mirali Gasanov and Level 1 coach Alexander Shleykin, who has been the captain of the Turkmenistan men’s team at the Davis Cup for many years and currently trains a large number of juniors.
