14-year-old debutant from Turkmenistan Ali Geldiyev reached the top eight in the regional qualifying tournament of the Roland Garros Junior Series, which is taking place on the clay courts of the «Gorky Tennis Park» in Almaty. This event became another bright page in the history of national tennis.
The competition brought together 16 of the strongest junior men and women (under 16 years old) from Central and Western Asia. Representatives from Iran, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan are competing for the right to continue the fight for a spot on the courts of Paris.
The qualifying winners will advance to the final stage of the Roland Garros Junior Series, which will be held in October in Japan. It is there that the only ticket to the main draw of the 2027 Roland Garros Juniors will be awarded.
The 10th-grade student from the Young olympians training school earned the right to compete in Almaty thanks to his high international and Asian rankings. As a result of the draw, Ali ended up in Group «A», where he tested his strength against opponents from Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
The Turkmen tennis player passed the group stage confidently and showed true character. In the opening match against the top seed of the tournament, Rodion Traigel from Kazakhstan, Ali lost the first set (3:6), but tied the score in the second (6:2). Before the decisive period, leg of the A. Geldiyev cramped, but he continued to fight and lost only in the tie-break (5:10).
In the second match, A. Geldiyev beat seventh-seeded Beksulton Voksidov from Uzbekistan 7:6(1), 6:0, and in the final game he left no chance for another Uzbek athlete, Don Sung Kim, crushing him 6:0, 6:1.
Having finished second in his group, Ali advanced to the quarterfinals, where he will face eighth-seeded Group «D» winner Kiarash Sadeghizadi of Iran.
Reaching the playoffs of an international tournament of this level is a serious step in the career of a young athlete. Earlier, in May of this year, Ali Geldiyev, at the age of 14, became the champion of Turkmenistan among men for the first time, setting an absolute national record.
Ali began his career in tennis at CYSS №9 in Turkmenabat under the guidance of Babamurat Mamatrasulov. Today, the promising athlete is honing his skills in Ashgabat with coaches Meylis Orazmuhammedov and Yuriy Rogusskiy.
