The national women’s tennis team of Kazakhstan reached the World Championship, the Billie Jean King Cup Finals which will take place in November 2023, for the second consecutive year beating a strong Polish team in Astana’s National Tennis Center by 3 matches to 1. With the support of an enthusiastic and vocal crowd, Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina won her two singles matches, and Yulia Putintseva won a very close match on day one, with the Polish team winning the doubles.
KAZ Team, from the left to the right: Elena Rybakina, Gozal Ainitdinova, Anna Danilina, Janel Rustemova, Yulia Putintseva, Aruzhan Sagandykova
The Billie Jean King Cup is the premier international tennis women’s team event, featuring some of the top ranked female players in the November finals. For this important match in Astana, the tickets were sold out a week before the Friday start. The match was played on an indoor clay court which took specialists 10 days to construct, transforming it from its original hard court.
Bulat Utemuratov, the President of the Tennis Federation of Kazakhstan, commented:
“Congratulations to our National Team for winning the Billie Jean King Cup qualifying match in Astana and for reaching the final stage of the World Championship! Winning a hard-fought victory against Poland, the national team of Kazakhstan once again performed exceptionally, and moved inside the top 10, capturing 7th place in the newly released BJK world rankings. Along with the star players Elena Rybakina, Yulia Putintseva and Anna Danilina – the young tennis players Janel Rustemova and Aruzhan Sagandykova, as well as the already experienced Gozal Ainitdinova also greatly contributed to the success of the Kazakhstani team. Once again, I would like to congratulate everyone on their success and wish our athletes more victories and the best of luck at the upcoming World Championships.”
Kazakhstan Team with the KTF Officials (from the left to the right): Dias Doskarayev (Vice-President of the Kazakhstan Tennis Federation), Janel Rustemova, Gozal Ainitdinova, Yulia Putintseva , Bulat Utemuratov, (President of the Kazakhstan Tennis Federation), Anna Danilina, Elena Rybakina, Yaroslava Shvedova, (Captain of Kazakhstan’s women’s tennis team).
Mr. Utemuratov also thanked the fans for their enthusiasm, especially the 500 young tennis players from different regions of the country who came to Astana to support their national team.
The women’s team of Kazakhstan, which for the first time has made it to 7th place in world rankings, narrowly missed reaching the semi-finals last year after defeating a strong team from Great Britain and losing a very close match to Spain in the group stage.
In the tennis singles rankings, Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina recently strengthened her status as one of the very best players in the world by winning her first WTA 1000 title which moved her to a WTA career high ranking of number 7.
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