Turkmenistan finished fourth out of 15 teams at the recently concluded of the Davis Cup Juniors Asia/Oceania Pre-Qualifying event for players under 16, held in Colombo, Sri Lanka, The Golden age electronic newspaper reports.
Seeded sixth, the Turkmen team was represented by Suleyman Hudayberdiyev, a ninth-grade student at the Specialized Secondary School No. 86 in Ashgabat, Aly Geldiyev, a ninth-grade student at the School for Training Young Olympians, and Kerimgeldi Guldurdyyev, a ninth-grade student at the Joint Turkmen-Russian Secondary School named after A.S.Pushkin.
In the group stage, the Turkmen team secured first place in Group B, defeating Oman 3-0 and earning hard-fought 2-1 victories over Myanmar and second-seeded Singapore. In the quarterfinals, the Turkmen juniors overcame the fifth-seeded team from the Philippines with a confident 2-0 win.
Having expended significant energy in earlier matches, the Turkmen players put up a strong fight in the semifinals against the third-seeded team from Vietnam. However, after two singles matches lasting nearly two hours, Vietnam secured a hard-earned 2-0 victory.
In the other semifinal, fourth-seeded Malaysia defeated host and top-seeded Sri Lanka 2-0. In the match for third place, Sri Lanka narrowly defeated Turkmenistan 2-1, clinching victory only in the doubles match after an intense contest.
As a result, the Turkmen team finished in fourth place in the DCJ Asia/Oceania Pre-Qualifying event, achieving their best result in the history of participation in these competitions.
The Turkmen players prepared for the DCJ Asia/Oceania Pre-Qualifying event under the guidance of their personal coaches and national team captain Gurbanberdi Gurbanberdiyev.
It is worth noting that the Davis Cup Juniors was launched by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) in 1985 as the World Cup for boys under 16 and was renamed to its current title in 2002. Each year, countries compete in regional qualifying events, with the winners advancing to the finals to contest the championship title.
