Today, the Tennis Federation of Turkmenistan (FTT) celebrates its 30th anniversary. This public sports organization was officially registered on April 14, 1992 and since then has become a strong organizer involved in the development and popularization of tennis in Turkmenistan.
To what extent the conditions for practicing this popular sport in the world have changed in Turkmenistan, it is enough to look into history.
Tennis in Turkmenistan, as a sport, began to be cultivated in the early 1950s and almost simultaneously in Ashgabat, Mary and Chardzhou (now Turkmanabat). Then a small number of people were engaged in it, and the competitions were held on asphalt surfaces.
Elena Domnina became the first state tennis coach in Turkmenistan. The Mary sports school, where she worked all her professional life, gave a ticket to big-time sports to many famous athletes. Subsequently, many students of E. Domnina became the leading athletes of Turkmenistan. Among them are Yazgeldy Byashimov, Larisa Kulakova, Georgy Bartnovsky, Valentina Alekseeva, Olga Chistyakova, Sergey Osipyan and many others.
With the acquisition of independence by Turkmenistan, the material and technical base of sports has noticeably strengthened. In all corners of the country, a large number of modern tennis courts have been built that meet all international standards.
Since 1997, the FFT has been an associate member, and since 2003, a full member of the International Tennis Federation (ITF), which currently unites 145 national organizations with the status of full members and 60 associate members.
After joining the ITF, Turkmen athletes received the right to play as an independent team in various international tennis competitions and win medals in them. During the years of state independence, the number of qualified trainers has also increased. To date, the total number of certified trainers in Turkmenistan reaches 40 specialists, 30 of which have an international ITF coaching certificate. The number of athletes has also increased over the years of independence and today is more than 1,500.
The Tennis Federation of Turkmenistan has its own official website (ttf.gov.tm), which contains all the relevant information about the activities of the FFT. Here, readers can also get acquainted with news from the world of tennis, as well as with the location of sports facilities where today you can practice this sport.
In 2018, a new composition of the FTF Board began to work, which carried out a number of effective measures to train the coaching staff and management, organize the competitive process, use the Internet and maintain the website, strengthen ties with the ITF and generally increase the international authority of the national federation. Evidence of this was the visit in 2019 of the two-time winner of the Davis Cup as part of the Russian national team, the winner of 19 ATP tournaments Mikhail Youzhny with a master class in Turkmenistan.
Since 2020, FTT representatives have been members of several ITF international committees, including the working group for holding world-famous team competitions for men and women - the Davis Cup and Billie Jean King Cup.