Bronze medals were awarded to Turkmen tennis players at the junior tournament for the Billie Jean King Cup for players under the age of 16 in the Asia/Oceania qualifying zone, which ended in Colombo.
Teams from 16 countries participated in the competition, which were divided into four groups at the preliminary stage. The top two in each of them advanced to the playoffs.
As the correspondent of «GA» was informed in the National Tennis Federation, Turkmenistan was represented at this tournament by: Meryem Muhammedova, Aisha Bikbulatova and Natalya Martynova. The duties of the captain of the national team were performed by the first racket of Turkmenistan Yuriy Rogusskiy.
At the group stage of the competition, Turkmen tennis players lost with a score of 0:3 to peers from Kyrgyzstan, beat the Saudi Arabian team - 2:1, the Omani team - 3:0 and eventually took 2nd place in group «D».
In the playoffs, our compatriots confidently prevailed over the Malaysian national team - 3:0, but in the semifinals with a score of 1: 2 they lost to the owners of the courts - tennis players from Sri Lanka, who in the final defeated their rivals from Kyrgyzstan - 2:1 and became the winners of the qualifying tournament.
In the match for 3rd place, the national team of Turkmenistan defeated the team of Singapore - 3:0 and was content with bronze medals. The victory for our team was ensured by: in singles - Meryem Muhammedova and Aisha Bekbulatova, who took over Joanna Hee - 7:6, 6:3 and Erin Lee - 6:2, 6:2, respectively, and in doubles - Natalya Martynova and Meryem Muhammedova, who outplayed Erin Lee and Summer Lee - 6:3, 6:3.
The Billie Jean King Cup is the largest international team event in women's tennis. The tournament is organized by the International Tennis Federation (ITF). In 1963-2020, the tournament was called the Fed Cup, in September 2020 it was renamed in honor of the American tennis player Billie Jean King. Separately from adults, tennis players under the age of 16 also contest this trophy.
