Young tennis players of Uzbekistan display outstanding performance

Suhbat Daminov, UT

During the independence, tennis has become one of the most popular sports in Uzbekistan. Many young players follow the example of Oleg Ogorodov, Iroda Tulyaganova, Akgul Amanmuradova, Denis Istomin.
Foreign specialists have already noticed Aleksandra Kolesnichenko, Albina Habibullina, Nigina Abduraimova... And young Sergey Shipilov even got into the national Davis Cup team, which will play an away match against China on March 5-7.
Sabina Sharipova from Tashkent stands in the same line with these promising players. Last autumn, the very young tennis player of the Republican Federation got an opportunity to play in the main grid of the Tashkent Open. Sabina handled well with the pressure and played almost on equal terms against the German tennis player Catherine Voerle. This year, women's national team's captain Dmitriy Tomashevich included Sabina in the team which went to Kuala Lumpur on the Federation Cup in February...
Yet, junior tournaments remain the main event for the 16-year-old Tashkent player. In one of them, held in Bangladesh last week, Sharipova displayed outstanding performance. The tournament in Rajshahi which brought together athletes from not only the south and south-east of Asia, but also athletes from Netherlands, Great Britain, Russia, Croatia, was quite tough, since 48 tennis players played in the main grid. And Sabina, who was not among the 16 seeded players, had to play six matches. She was aiming only at the victory. And one by one she crushed Kanika Wajda from India - 7/6 (5), 6/3, Din Mennin of China - 7/5 6/2, then the second seeded Ankita Raina (India) - 6/3, 6/3, and her compatriot Ratnika Batra - 6/2, 3/6, 6/0. In the semifinal the Uzbek player opposed Donna Vekic of Croatia. But she could not stop Sabina - 7/6 (2), 6/2. In the final Sharipova beat the first seeded Lee Huachen from Chinese Taipei in almost the same scenario, who was much fresher since she started from the second round and passed the quarterfinal without playing as Englishwoman Amy Askew forfeited the tournament - 7/6 (2), 6/0.
Moreover, Sabina also played in the doubles, and played well. Being seeded third in pair with her future rival in the single's finale Li Huachen, the girls reached the final after three wins. But lost it to the Indonesian duo Bela Destriana-Sinthia Melita - 3/6, 4/6. So Sab da deserved congratulations.

By the material from the "Uzbekistan Today" Information agency