Turkmen tennis players achieved double gold at the first tournament of the West and Central Asian junior tennis championships for women under 14, which concluded in the capital of Bahrain, Manama.
The ITF Asia 14&U Development Championship (West & Central Asia) brought together representatives from 13 countries – Bahrain, Jordan, Iraq, Yemen, Qatar, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan – to compete for medals in two ranking tournaments over two weeks. Russia was represented by 4 athletes.
In the singles competition, 7th-grade student of Ashgabat secondary school №87 Nazli Hudaygulyyeva took the top spot, winning a comeback victory in three sets over Ayasofia Gokashaw, a representative of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, in the final – 0:6, 6:1, 6:3.
It is gratifying that she added another gold medal in doubles to this success, sharing this victory with 12-year-old Sulgun Ishangulyyeva. In the final of this event, the Turkmen duo confidently won in two sets against athletes from the Lebanese Republic, Maria El Hachache and Mariam Kamareddine - 6:3, 7:5 and were awarded the highest award.
It is worth noting that last month both tennis players successfully performed at the international Category «A» tournament for juniors under 14 years old, held in Isa Town, Bahrain, under the auspices of the Asian tennis federation (ATF). At that competition, S. Ishangulyyeva, competing with Jordanian A. Gokashau, won a silver medal in the doubles, while N. Hudaygulyyeva placed among the top four in the singles, where representatives from 17 countries competed for the prizes.
Both athletes are members of the Turkmenistan national team. Nazli Hudaygulyyeva, who turns 13 on the 19th of February, is training diligently under the guidance of experienced coaches Meylis Orazmuhammedov and Yuriy Rogusskiy.
Sulgun Ishangulyyeva is a student of «Jahan Döredijilik Merkezi». She trains in tennis with the honoured coach of Turkmenistan, Jennet Hallyyeva. And in the Turkmenistan national team, she is honing her skills under the guidance of head coach Yuriy Rogusskiy.
The winners of the second two-week tournament of the West and Central Asian championship among juniors under 14 years old will be announced in the coming days.
