Oriented on making people closer

A team competition in Central Asia among children under 12 started in Ashgabat. The tournament gathered about 40 young tennis players from Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Afghanistan.

On the first day of competition, the Turkmen duet Aisha Bikbulatova and Meryem Muhammedova beat rivals from Tajikistan with a total score of 3:0. The boys of the Turkmen national team Imran Akhundov and Selim Pyrdzhikov also made a worthy performance.

The Uzbek team was supported by the Secretary General of the Tennis Federation of Uzbekistan Iroda Tulyaganova, with whom ORIENT spoke.

• We came with our strongest players to win only victory. Last year, the team of Uzbekistan took second place, behind only Kazakhstan. This time we plan to win them, - shared the Secretary General of the Federation. - There are also matches with Turkmenistan. And I know these children, their abilities. Therefore, I say to my people “Turkmenistan is not a weak team, we will need to work with it”.

Iroda Tulyaganova is the owner of the Pro Tennis Team Tennis Academy, in which the tennis team of Turkmenistan has held training camps more than once.

• When they came to my school, I felt their immense desire to train, to constantly play. When the workouts were canceled due to rain, they were frustrated.

We also worked with each of them individually - corrected the technique, worked out the tactics of the game, performed special exercises so that they moved better around the court.

According to the Uzbek coach, the Turkmen athletes are very close friends with the pupils from her school, and they have developed a warm relationship.

“Even my son got used to them very much,” she shared. “When he found out that I was going to Turkmenistan, he said: “I also want to see my friends.”

“One of the goals of my arrival is to sign a Memorandum of Cooperation with the Tennis Federation of Turkmenistan, which will bring interaction to a new level,” said the athlete. “For example, here in Uzbekistan many international tournaments are held in which Turkmen athletes can participate. Thus, they will earn the necessary points for reaching the world level.

The agreement will facilitate the exchange of experience between athletes through the organization of training camps, advanced training courses for coaches like Turkmenistan, as well as Uzbekistan.

Yesterday Iroda Tulyaganova held a master class for all participants in an international tournament.

“We planned to do a master class exclusively for Turkmen tennis players, but it turned out a peoples friendship master class,” said the tennis player, laughing. And I decided to hold it in such a format that I play alone against them all. And even there are a couple of boys from Turkmenistan who beat me,” she said. - I think that this generation up to 12 years old is tomorrow's tennis.

Ayna BERDIYEVA