Aylar Kakabayeva, a 12-year-old athlete from Ashgabat, climbed to the top step of the podium in doubles at the first tournament for juniors under 14 years old, held in Doha (Qatar) under the auspices of the Asian Tennis Federation. This success was achieved by the 7th-grade student of the Atamyrat Niyazov School for Gifted Children in a duo with Polina Sushkova from Kazakhstan.
On their way to the highest honor, the top-seeded A. Kakabayeva and P. Sushkova won in the semifinals against the pair Aruzhan Erzhanova (Kazakhstan)/Eva Savino (Canada) – 6:2, 6:3, and in the final, they defeated the third-seeded international duo Honey Jumani Gaurav Jumani (India)/Dana Khalifa (Qatar) – 7:5, 6:0.
Aylar Kakabayeva practices tennis at Sports School No. 10 of the Main Department of Physical Culture and Sports of Ashgabat under the guidance of Jennet Khallyeva, Honored Coach of Turkmenistan.
"Aylar entered the world of sports completely by chance at the age of 7. The coaches noticed her talent and abilities and started training her at a professional level, and my daughter realized that tennis is her main passion," Aylar's mother Maral Kakabayeva told the correspondent of "GA" from Doha. "Aylar is an excellent student and trains every day in the morning and evening. As parents, we dream that Aylar will raise the flag of our country in many other countries!"
Kakabayeva has every chance to also make it among the prize winners at the second Asian tournament among juniors under 14 years old in singles, which started in Doha. In the first two matches, our compatriot, seeded second, crushed Lana Rohelio (Philippines) and Dorsaf Al-Thani (Qatar) 6:0, 6:0, and now in the semifinals, she will play against the fourth-seeded Malika Pulatova from Uzbekistan.
Last year, Aylar Kakabayeva, as part of the Turkmenistan national team, took 3rd place among women's teams at the Central Asian Championship (U12) in Ashgabat.