Turkmen tennis players have qualified for the Davis Cup playoffs in Group V of the Asia-Oceania Zone, which is being held in Isa Town, (Bahrain), with 14 teams competing. They achieved this remarkable success by winning Group «C», where four teams were competing for the only spot in the playoffs.
The fate of first place in the group was decided today in a meeting between the national teams of Turkmenistan and Bahrain, who entered the match undefeated. In their previous matches, Bahrain had defeated Bangladesh 3-0 and Brunei 2-1. Meanwhile, Turkmenistan had defeated Brunei and Bangladesh by identical scores of 3-0.
The final match against Bangladesh, which lasted over six hours, took a significant toll on the Turkmen tennis players. Therefore, before their encounter with the tournament hosts, many experts had legitimate concerns: would the Turkmenistan team be able to recover and get ready for the decisive match?
As events on the court at the Bahrain Polytechnic University demonstrated, players of Mirali Gasanov and Gurbanberdi Gurbanberdiyev approached the game with the utmost responsibility, crushing one of the tournament favourites, who played with the support of local fans, 3-0.
Advantage of our compatriots was evident in the first set, which Selim Chagylov confidently won against Elyas Abduljalil, 6-1. Apparently anticipating an easy victory, our tennis player relaxed a bit in the second set and unexpectedly lost it, 1-6. In the final set, Chagylov did not tempt fate and won it with a huge margin, 6-1, and with it, the match, which lasted 1 hour and 32 minutes.
In the second singles match, which lasted 1 hour and 26 minutes, Allanur Dayanjov defeated Yusuf Kaid in straight sets – 6:3, 6:4. And in the doubles match, Meylis Orazmuhammedov and Yuriy Rogusskiy defeated Faris Abdulhussein Abdulkarim Al Tubli and Ahmed Alsayed in 59 minutes – 6:3, 6:1.
Following this victory, the record between teams of the men of Turkmenistan and Bahrain increased to 4-2 in favour of our tennis players. Bahrain won by the same score of 2-1 in 2010 in Jordan and in 2018 in Oman, while Turkmenistan was stronger in 2007 in Myanmar (2-1) and by the same score of 3-0 in 2012 in Jordan, in 2013 in the UAE, and now in Bahrain.
In another match in Group «C», the Bangladesh team defeated the Brunei team 3:0.
The results of the remaining matches of the 3rd round: Group «A» – Laos – Northern Mariana Islands – 1:2; Group «B» – Guam – Mongolia – 2:1; Group «D» – United Arab Emirates – Macau – 2:1, Maldives – Tajikistan – 2:1.
In this way, in the playoff match, the Turkmenistan team will play the winner of Group «B», Guam. The other playoff match will be between the winners of Groups «A» and «D», the Northern Mariana Islands and the Maldives. The winners of these matches will qualify for Group IV of the Asia-Oceania Zone next year.
The winners of the Yemen – UAE and Mongolia – Bahrain matches will compete for 5th and 6th places. Laos – Tajikistan and Myanmar – Bangladesh will compete for 9th and 10th places. Brunei – Macau will play for 13th and 14th places.
Turkmenistan has been participating in the Davis Cup, known as the «World cup of tennis», since 2004. Turkmen tennis players achieved their best result in 2015, reaching the Group III playoffs of the Asia-Oceania Zone in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
