Another significant page has been added to the history of Turkmen tennis. Invited by the Kazakhstan Tennis Federation (KTF), Turkmen specialist Begmuhammet Mommayev took part in organizing the professional men's ATP 250 Almaty Open tournament, which was held from October 13 to 20 in Almaty.
"Your participation is required from October 7 to 21, 2024, to prepare and ensure the successful conduct of the event. We rely on your professionalism and experience to create comfortable conditions for both participants and spectators," stated the official invitation letter from Dias Doskaraev, Vice President of the Kazakhstan Tennis Federation.
According to the KTF, during the ATP 250 Almaty Open, Begmuhammet Mommayev was responsible for coordinating participants, organizing registration, preparing the venue, overseeing the event schedule, ensuring timely distribution of materials, supporting staff during the tournament, and assisting in resolving any organizational issues and addressing problems that arose.
The ATP 250 Series is a category of professional men's tennis tournaments held in 30 countries worldwide. This category includes 40 tournaments, with a victory in any of them earning a player 250 ATP ranking points (Association of Tennis Professionals).
The ATP 250 Almaty Open, with a prize fund of over $1 million USD, gathered 32 professional tennis players from 15 countries with high rankings. The winner was 28-year-old Russian Karen Khachanov, who defeated Gabriel Diallo from Canada (ATP rank 118) in the final with scores of 6-2, 5-7, 6-3.
The match lasted 2 hours and 25 minutes. Karen served six aces, made one double fault, and converted six break points out of nineteen opportunities.
Earlier in 2024, Khachanov won another ATP 250 tournament on hard courts in Doha, Qatar. In his career, Karen has won seven singles titles. He has triumphed in tournaments in Chengdu, Marseille, Moscow, Zhuhai and Doha. He also has one victory in a Masters Series tournament in Paris, which he achieved in 2018. In addition to these achievements, K. Khachanov was a silver medalist at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, a Davis Cup winner as part of the Russian national team, and was awarded the title "Honored Master of Sports of the Russian Federation".
During the ATP 250 Almaty Open, Begmuhammet Mommayev took a memorable photo with Karen Khachanov, who was ranked 21st in the Association of Tennis Professionals ranking at the end of October.
"Being invited as one of the organizers of such a prestigious tournament is a great honor for me," shared B. Mommayev with a correspondent of "GA".
The 31-year-old candidate for Master of Sports Begmuhammet Mommayev also shared that he fell in love with tennis during his school years when he started playing it in Mary. In 2009, he ranked among the top ten at a junior tournament in Almaty (Kazakhstan) for players under 14 years old. After finishing school, he enrolled at the National Institute of Sports and Tourism of Turkmenistan (now the Turkmen State Institute of Physical Culture and Sports), graduating in 2016 as a tennis coach-instructor. Currently, B. Mommayev combines his duties as director of the Tennis Complex at the Olympic Village with his role as a coach at the Turkmenistan Tennis Federation.
The invitation for a Turkmen specialist to serve at one of these prestigious international tournaments is indicative of the growing recognition and authority of the Turkmenistan Tennis Federation (TTF). It is worth noting that this October, TTF was recognized as one of Asia's fastest-growing organizations. This decision was announced at the General Assembly of the Asian Tennis Federation (ATF) held in Hong Kong, where ATF President Yuriy Polskiy presented an honorary trophy to Eziz Dovletov, Chairman of the Turkmenistan Tennis Federation.