Tashkent Open International Women’s Tennis Tournament of the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) has kicked off in the Uzbek capital city. The strongest masters of racket from nearly 20 countries of the world vie for prizes in this prestigious competition.

Tashkent Open International Women’s Tennis Tournament of the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) has kicked off in the Uzbek capital city. The strongest masters of racket from nearly 20 countries of the world vie for prizes in this prestigious competition.

As one of widely popular sports in our country, tennis serves for fostering the growing generation as physically healthy and spiritually mature personalities. The 29 April 2008 resolution of the head of our state on the Establishment of the Republican Tennis School of the Olympic Reserve constitutes an important factor in nurturing masters of racket capable of properly upholding the honor of our nation at the international tennis courts.

The traditional international tournament Tashkent Open is one of the prestigious competitions that revealed numerous talented athletes. Tennis players like Marion Bartoli, Pauline Parmentier, Virginie Razzano, Emilia Lua (all from France), Nicole Vaidisova (the Czech Republic), Elena Dementieva, Dinara Safina, Maria Kirilenko, Alla Kudryavtseva (all from Russia), Francesca Schiavone and Tathiana Garbin (Italy), Urszula Radwanska (Poland), Magdalena Rybarikova (Slovakia), Sania Mirza (India), Li Na (China), Megan Shonessi (United States), and Shahar Peer (Israel) are currently renowned sportspeople around the world.

Such celebrated athletes as the winner of last year’s tournament Bojana Jovanovski of Serbia, Irina-Camelia Begu of Romania, Donna Vekic of Croatia, Alexandra Panova of Russia, Karin Knapp of Italy are taking part in this international tournament held for the sixteenth time.

Matches of the main grid started at the courts of the Republican Tennis School of the Olympic Reserve. The first round of competitions was kicked off by Bojana Jovanovski from Serbia and Katerina Bondarenko from Ukraine. The acting champion of the tournament, who yielded in the first set, 1-6, overwhelmed in the second and third sets, 6-4 and 6-1, to secure a ticket to the next round.

Akgul Amanmuradova, representing our country, defeated Yovana Jaksic of Serbia with scores 6-4, 2-6, 6-2. The Australian Olivia Rogowska gave in to the Belarusian Alexandra Sasnovic (6-3, 4-6, 4-6), while the Ukrainian Marina Zanevska conceded to the Russian Alla Kudryavtseva (4-6, 6-2, 3-6).