Turkmen tennis players achieved notable success at the International ATF 14&Under Category A Tournament, which concluded today in the city of Isa Town, Bahrain. Held under the auspices of the Asian Tennis Federation (ATF), the competition brought together representatives from 17 countries, The Golden age electronic newspaper reports.

Twelve-year-old Sulgun Ishankuliyeva, partnering with Jordanian player A. Ghokashaw, won silver medals in the doubles event. On their way to this achievement, the Turkmen–Jordanian duo successively defeated Russia’s T. Korotchenko and Taisiia Zubkova (6:2, 6:0), the international pair of Aubree Kadir (Indonesia) and Zara Firman (Malaysia) (6:2, 6:2), and in the semifinals secured a hard-fought comeback victory over the Indian pair Padmapriya Ramesh / Shazfa SK (4:6, 7:6(1), 10:6). In the final, Ishankuliyeva and Ghokashaw lost to the Russian-Iranian duo S.Himmelreich / Ailin Mohammadian (3:6, 3:6), finishing in second place.

Very intense competition for the prizes unfolded in the girls’ singles event, which featured players from Bahrain, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Jordan, Iran, Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia, Russia, Saudi Arabia, USA, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Philippines and Japan.

In this event, the best result among the Turkmen players was achieved by Nyazli Hudaykulieva, a 7th-grade student at Secondary School No. 87 in Ashgabat. In her opening match, she defeated Jaanya Bhandari (India) 6:0, 6:4; in the second round, she overcame Russia’s S.Himmelreich 6:4, 6:0; and in the third round, she beat India’s Shazfa SK in three sets, 7:6(6), 3:6, 6:4. In the semifinals, Nyazli lost to the tournament winner Mengxiao Li (China) 1:6, 4:6, and in the match for third place was defeated by Chiho Shirai (Japan) 5:7, 2:6, finishing among the top four players. This is a solid result at the highly competitive ATF Bahrain 14 & Under Category A tournament for Hudaykulieva, who will turn only 13 years old on February 19.

It should also be noted that the ATF Bahrain 14 & Under Category A is one of the ranking tournaments whose successful participation over the course of the year provides an opportunity to compete in the junior events of Wimbledon and the Australian Open in 2027. At the start of the tournament in Bahrain, Nyazli Hudaykulieva ranked 19th in the Asian junior rankings, while Sulgun Ishankuliyeva was ranked 52nd. It is expected that after the ranking points from this tournament are awarded, Nyazli will move into the top 10 players in Asia.