The ITF junior team competitions currently cover two age groups: 14 & Under and 16 & Under. Both events give young tennis players the opportunity to experience international competition and the unique atmosphere of playing in a team for their country.
In that competition the turkmen team won an impressive 3–0 victory over Bahrain in the Asia-Oceania preliminary round for the ITF Junior Championship for boys under 14 years of age. The competition is held in Isa Town, Bahrain.
The ITF World Junior Tennis Competition Pre-Qualification is a joint international tennis tournament between the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and the Asian Tennis Federation (ATF) and consists of 21 teams divided into six groups.
The Turkmenistan team competed in Group D alongside Bahrain and Syria.
The compositions of other groups are as follows: Group A: Indonesia (1st seed), Guam, Yemen; Group B: Hong Kong (China), Mongolia, Jordan; Group C: Saudi Arabia, Nepal, Bangladesh; Group E: Iraq, Lebanon, Macau; Group F: Philippines, Malaysia, Maldives; Group G: Kyrgyzstan, United Arab Emirates, Oman.
The winners of the group go to the quarter-finals, competing for two positions in the final qualifying phase, which will take place from 9 to 14 April 2025 in Malaysia.
Representatives of the national team of Turkmenistan at the ITF World Junior Tennis Competition qualifying tournament are Ali Geldiyev, an 8th-grade student at the School for Young Olympians and winner of last year’s 3rd Asian Junior Tournament for players under 14 in Doha, Qatar, Kerimgeldi Guldurdyev, an 8th-grade student at the Joint Turkmen-Russian Secondary School named after A.S. Pushkin and winner in doubles at the international “Ashgabat Open 2024” tournament for players under 14, Suleyman Hudayberdyyev, an 8th-grade student at Specialized Secondary School No. 86 in Ashgabat and silver medalist in singles at three international tournaments in Qatar, Ashgabat, and Saudi Arabia in 2024 for players under 14.
The opening match with the host team was relatively easy for our national tennis players. In the first singles match, Kerimgeldi Guldurdyev beated Nasser Salman with a score of 6:3, 6:1. In the second singles match, Ali Geldiyev easily beat Ali Basel Alkhayyat, conceding only two games – 6:0, 6:2. In the team match, which was no longer hard for the overall victory, Kerimgeldi Guldurdyev and Suleyman Hudayberdyyev crushed the dual of Abdullah Aldoseri and Nasser Salman with a score of 6:0, 6:1.
In the next match, Turkmen tennis players will face Syria, seeded third.
The ITF team competitions for juniors are held for boys and girls. And it should be noted that just recently on these same courts in Isa Town, Bahrain, Turkmenistan’s girls’ team under 14 achieved their best-ever result by finishing fifth among 18 teams in the ITF World Junior Tennis Competition Pre-Qualifying for the Asia-Oceania zone.
The women’s team was represented by Aylar Kakabayeva, an 8th-grade student at Ashgabat’s School for Gifted Children named after Atamyrat Niyazov, Nazli Hudaygulyyeva, a 6th-grade student at Ashgabat Secondary School No. 87, Sakhra Garahanova, a 6th-grade student at Ashgabat Secondary School No. 90.
