Turkmen tennis players secured their second victory at the Billie Jean King Cup zonal tournament currently being held in Phan Thiet, Vietnam.
In Group III of the Asia/Oceania Zone, where the Turkmen team is competing, eight teams are fighting for promotion. They have been divided into two groups.
In the opening round of Group B, Turkmenistan defeated Tajikistan 3:0. Today, the team repeated that result, overcoming Iraq by the same score. Iraqi players have competed in the women’s international team tennis competition since 1998.
Notably, before this match, the women’s national teams of Turkmenistan and Iraq had never faced each other, as the two sides have rarely played in the same subgroups. Turkmenistan began competing in this event considerably later than Iraq, making its debut in 2004. Interestingly, during the summer of the same year, the men’s national teams of the two countries also met in the Davis Cup, where Turkmenistan likewise claimed a clean 3:0 victory.
In the women’s event, our compatriots also encountered few difficulties against their Iraqi opponents. In the first singles match, which lasted 1 hour and 14 minutes, Aylara Kakabayeva, a student of the “Jahan” Creative Centre, defeated Hana Avdal Hasan 6:1, 6:2. In the second singles match, Aynur Movlyamova needed only 56 minutes to defeat Zafal Khalil 6:0, 6:1. In the doubles match, Jennet Charyeva and Anna Ponyatova took just 51 minutes to convincingly beat Lara Hasan and Zafal Khalil 6:0, 6:1.
The players’ personal coaches also deserve full credit for this success. Aynur Movlyamova owes her tennis achievements to Gulche Byashimova. Aylara Kakabayeva and Anna Ponyatova train under Jennet Hallyeva, while Jennet Charyeva—the only representative of the Mary tennis school on the national team—learns from coach Andrey Dovmatov. At the Billie Jean King Cup zonal tournament in Vietnam, the athletes are competing under the guidance of Yuriy Rogusskiy, head coach of Turkmenistan’s women’s national team.
In the final round, with first place in Group B—and a place in the playoffs—at stake, Turkmenistan will face Vietnam. The Vietnamese team defeated Tajikistan 3:0 today.
Group A features Nepal, the Northern Mariana Islands, Brunei, and Saudi Arabia.
The winners of the two groups will meet in a playoff match to determine which team earns promotion to Group II of the Asia/Oceania Zone next year.
The Billie Jean King Cup is the world’s largest international women’s team tennis competition. It is organized by World Tennis, formerly the International Tennis Federation (ITF). From 1963 to 2020, the competition was called the Federation Cup (Fed Cup). In September 2020, it was renamed in honor of American tennis legend Billie Jean King.
