Sportsman from Turkmenistan Imran Ahundov won the gold medal at the last of a series of four open tournaments of the Asian Tennis Federation, held among players under 14 in Dushanbe since 15th of March. Our compatriot was awarded the highest standard in doubles, speaking in tandem with an athlete from Pakistan, Zohaib Afzal Malik.
Medals in men's doubles contested 14 duets.
In their first match at the quarterfinal stage, Imran Ahundov and Zohaib Afzal Malik quite easily defeated the international duet Alijon Mirzoev (Tajikistan) / Kirill Savelyev (Kazakhstan) - 6:2, 6:1, then in the semifinals they did not experience any special problems in the duel with Ramazoni Ismoilov and Shokhruh Negmatov from Tajikistan - 6:2, 6:1.
The final match against Arafat Mustafa and Assan Sarmanov from Kazakhstan turned out to be far from easy. The first set was won by the Kazakh couple - 6:3. In the second set, Imran Ahundov and Zohaib Afzal Malik took the upper hand - 6:4 and equalized the situation in the match. The fate of the decisive third set was decided on a super tie-break, where luck accompanied the Turkmen-Pakistani duet - 10:8.
The gold medal won by our athlete in Tajikistan was a good gift for the 31st anniversary of the Tennis Federation of Turkmenistan. Remind that this public sports organization was registered on the 14th of April in 1992 and currently unites more than 1,500 tennis players, 40 certified coaches, 30 of which have an ITF international coaching certificate.
It is also noteworthy that this is Imran's fifth medal in four tournaments this year. Remind that in January he won bronze in doubles with Selim Chagylov at the qualifying tournament of the Asian Championship of the Central and West Asia region among players under 14 in Bahrain, and in February he achieved the same success as part of the Turkmenistan team at the qualifying world championship of the Asia / Oceania zone among juniors (U-14) in Sri Lanka.
I. Ahundov won two more medals - silver and bronze - last month at the first Asian Tennis Federation (ATF) Dushanbe Open tournament in Tajikistan among players under 14 years old. He achieved silver success in doubles, speaking in tandem with Akmal Arabjanov from Uzbekistan, and bronze in singles.
Imran Ahundov is a graduate of the Ashgabat Tennis Academy, where he plays his favorite sport under the guidance of head coach Mirali Hasanov.
