Turkmen tennis players will participate for the first time in the ATF 12&U Team Competition, which will be held this year in Singapore. Our compatriots achieved this remarkable success at the recently concluded ATF 12&U Team Competition – Central Asia in Fergana, Uzbekistan. The national teams of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan contested two tickets to the final round of the competition, as reported turkmenistan.gov.tm.
Nazli Hudaygulyeva, Sakhra Garakhanova, and Sulgun Ishangulyeva represented turkmen girls’ team at the tournament.
The competition among the girls remained suspenseful until the very end. The intrigue was created by the Turkmen tennis players, who in the first round defeated the home team of Uzbekistan 2:1, making a significant step towards winning silver medals and securing a place in the final stage of the Asia Championship. To realize this dream, they only needed to win the last round against the Kyrgyzstan team, if the Uzbekistan team lost to the tennis players of Kazakhstan.
As expected, in the parallel match, the representatives of Kazakhstan defeated their Uzbek opponents 2:1, winning the gold medals. It then became clear that the fate of the second place was in the hands of our team.
The Turkmen tennis players were determined to win. In the first singles match, Sakhra Garakhanova confidently defeated Aliya Mansurova 6:0, 6:1. In the second singles match, Nazli Hudaygulyeva crushed Aida Abduvalieva without conceding a single game – 6:0, 6:0. Sulgun Ishangulyeva and Nazli Hudaygulyeva, who won the doubles match against Aliya Mansurova and Aida Abduvalieva 6, finished off the Kyrgyz team:1, 6:0.
Thus, the Turkmen tennis players won silver medals for the first time and with them a ticket to the final stage of the Asia Championship, leaving behind the Uzbekistan team, which was considered the favorite in the qualifiers.
