In the most prestigious Davis Cup competitions, the team of Turkmen tennis players in 2022 will play in the fourth group of the Asia and Oceania zone. This became known following the results of the zonal tournament that ended in Isa Town (Bahrain), during which 12 teams contested three tickets to the III group.
Recall that the national team of Turkmenistan successfully started in it. Having scored three victories in a row with the same score 3: 0 over the teams of Iraq, Mongolia and Oman, Mirali Hasanov's wards excelled in group "B".
According to the results of the draw at the playoff stage, our compatriots had to play with the team of the United Arab Emirates, which ranks 115 in the world tennis rating, which for several years has been considered an inconvenient rival for the national team of Turkmenistan. From 2004 to 2017, the teams met each other 7 times, and only once, in 2014, at the III group tournament of the Asia and Oceania zone in Tehran, the Turkmenians took over the UAE tennis players - 2: 1.
The fight turned out to be just as stubborn this time. Suffice it to say that the opponents spent a total of about 5 hours on the court. In the first singles match, which lasted 2 hours 13 minutes, Yuri Rogussky lost in three sets to Hamad Abbas Jahani - 2: 6, 6: 4, 2: 6. And in the second - the first rocket of Turkmenistan, Isa Mametkuliev easily outplayed Omar Alavadhi in 52 minutes - 6: 2, 6: 0 and equalized the score in the match - 1: 1.
In the decisive doubles meeting, in which the captain of the UAE team released a fresh player, Abdulrahman Al Janahi, to replace, the game in the first set was, as they say, a point for a point. Hamad Abbas Jahani and Abdulrahman Al Janahi took the lead. However, Isa Mametkuliev and Yuri Rogussky, who lost the entire tournament without substitutions, evened the score. As a result, it came to a tie-break, where, with a score of 5: 6, the Turkmenians played the first set point, but the second with a score of 6: 6 failed.
In the second set, the game was equal until the score was 3: 3. However, then tennis players from the UAE won three games in a row and eventually achieved victory - 7: 6, 6: 3.
Together with the UAE team, the right to play in 2022 in the III group of the zone of Asia and Oceania was won by the national teams of Saudi Arabia and Iran, which in the playoffs prevailed, respectively, over the tennis players of Cambodia - 2: 1 and Iraq - 3: 0.
«GA» Correspondent
