14 years old tennis player from Turkmenistan Ilima Huseynova became the silver medalist of the international tournament “Selangor Asian 14 & Under Grade A (Southeast Asia)” in Malaysia in doubles.
Huseynova competed in pairs with Iranian athlete Hana Shabanpour.In the final of the tournament, the Turkmen-Iranian duo lost to the pair of Shivali Gurung (Nepal) and Sa'Ya Maula (Indonesia) with a score of 3:6, 5:7, reports the publication “Turkmenistan: Golden Age”.
The road to the final for top seeds Huseynova and Shabanpour included victories over pairs from Malaysia/Maldives, Iran/Malaysia and the Republic of Korea. In singles, Huseynova reached the quarterfinals, where she lost to the representative of Thailand.
Ilima Huseynova is the first racket of Turkmenistan and one of the four best tennis players in Asia under 14 years of age.She trains at the Ashgabat Tennis Academy under the guidance of the head coach of the Turkmenistan national team, Mirali Hasanov.
This year, the athlete has already won three medals at international tournaments, including gold in doubles in India.
Huseynova's success at the Grade A series tournaments held under the auspices of the Asian Tennis Federation allowed her to receive an invitation to the prestigious GSPDP Asian 14U Junior Championships 2024, which will be held in September in Cambodia with the participation of 24 of the best young tennis players in Asia.