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ITF World Tennis Tour

Almaty to Host Central Asia’s First World Tennis General Assembly

From October 10 to 13, Almaty will host events for the annual General Assembly of World Tennis, formerly the International Tennis Federation (ITF). The meeting of national tennis federation leaders will be held in Central Asia for the first time. More than 262 delegates from 137 countries are expected to attend. Founded in 1913, World Tennis is tennis’s global governing body. It sets the rules of the game and oversees the Davis Cup, Billie Jean King Cup, and junior competitions. In June 2026, the federation changed its name from ITF to World Tennis. Its leadership also announced plans to increase the number of people playing tennis worldwide from 106 million to 140 million by 2035. The federation's Board of Directors will meet in Almaty on October 10–11, followed by the General Assembly and voting on October 13. The announced topics include support for national federations, the development of children's tennis, training for coaches and officials, and the organization of international competitions. The Kazakhstan Tennis Federation is headed by Bulat Utemuratov, who also serves as vice president of World Tennis. In recent years, Kazakhstan has regularly hosted international tournaments, including the ATP 250 Almaty Open. The next tournament will take place later that month, from October 17 to 25. The meeting will take place shortly after Elena Rybakina's victory at the U.S. Open, her third Grand Slam title. Rybakina has now risen to the top of the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) rankings for the first time.

FIDE Chess Olympiad

Uzbekistan Wins FIDE Chess Olympiad Gold on Home Soil in Samarkand

Uzbekistan has won the Open section of the 46th FIDE Chess Olympiad in Samarkand, claiming its second title after its breakthrough victory in Chennai in 2022. The hosts entered the final round with 18 match points, one ahead of defending champions India. Uzbekistan defeated Ukraine 2.5-1.5 to finish with 20 points, while India drew 2-2 with Hungary. India’s draw meant Uzbekistan had secured gold even before its match against Ukraine had finished. India and Germany both finished on 18 points, with India taking silver on tiebreak and Germany bronze. Mukhiddin Madaminov delivered the decisive win on board four against Ukraine, while the other three games ended in draws. [caption id="attachment_57312" align="aligncenter" width="1774"] Uzbekistan’s players during the final round of the Chess Olympiad in Samarkand. Image: FIDE[/caption] Uzbekistan won its first seven matches before Germany handed the hosts their only defeat of the tournament, 2.5-1.5, in Round 8. The team responded by beating the United States, the top seed in the Open section, in Round 9, before defeating Armenia 3.5-0.5 in the penultimate round. The winning squad consisted of Javokhir Sindarov, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Nodirbek Yakubboev, Shamsiddin Vokhidov, and Mukhiddin Madaminov, with former FIDE world champion Rustam Kasimdzhanov serving as captain. Four of the five players had also been part of Uzbekistan’s gold medal team in Chennai in 2022. “The most important thing is how much attention is being paid to chess in our country,” Kasimdzhanov said at the Olympiad’s final press conference. He credited support from the president and prime minister with giving the team the conditions it needed to prepare and compete. Kasimdzhanov also pointed to the relationship among the players as an important factor in the team’s performance. “Such unity does not exist in every team. We are together, we are friends, and that helps us.” Preparations, he added, extended to details beyond the chessboard. “We did everything we could. We left nothing to chance,” he said. “Considering how important this tournament was, we carefully thought through even the smallest details.” The Samarkand victory extends Uzbekistan’s run of medals at three consecutive Olympiads: gold in Chennai in 2022, bronze in Budapest in 2024, and gold again in Samarkand. Abdusattorov also won the individual gold medal on board one in Samarkand, posting a performance rating of 2869. Kazakhstan won silver in the women’s competition after drawing 2-2 with Poland in the final round. China took gold, while India claimed bronze on tiebreak. The competition ran from September 16 to 27, following the opening ceremony on September 15. Before the tournament, FIDE said a record 400 teams had registered across the two main competitions, with 208 in the Open section and 192 in the Women’s section, surpassing the previous record set in Budapest in 2024. The home victory also came days after Uzbekistan increased financial rewards for its leading chess players. Under Presidential Resolution No. PP-346, adopted on September 21, gold at the senior World Chess Olympiad or Chess Paralympiad carries a one-time award of $200,000 for each player. The corresponding...

Asian Games

Uzbekistan Wins First Gold as Record Team Competes at Asian Games

Uzbekistan has claimed its first gold medal at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, where it is fielding its largest-ever delegation, according to the country’s National Olympic Committee. Abdulvakhob Rashidov won the men’s under-67kg karate title on September 21, defeating Japan’s Yugo Kozaki in the final. His victory opened Uzbekistan’s gold medal account at the competition in Japan. Further medals followed on September 22. Darya Latysheva took silver in wushu with a score of 19.413 points, securing her third career Asian Games medal. Firdavs Atamuradov also won silver in mixed martial arts, losing to Tajikistan’s Mirzobek Umarov in the under-60kg final. The early results come as Uzbekistan expands its participation in the continental competition. The NOC announced a team of 396 athletes across 42 sports, describing it as the country’s largest Asian Games squad. Its press release puts the delegation at 224 men and 172 women. The larger team follows Uzbekistan’s fifth-place finish at the previous Asian Games in Hangzhou, held in 2023. Uzbekistan won 71 medals, including 22 golds, after sending more than 370 athletes to compete across 38 sports. This year’s delegation therefore extends the country’s participation into four additional sports. The Aichi-Nagoya Games opened on September 19 and continue through October 4. Uzbekistan’s results over the remaining competition will determine whether its expanded delegation can improve on the Hangzhou medal haul. A separate Uzbek delegation of 153 athletes is due to compete at the Asian Para Games, according to the NOC’s press release. That competition will take place in Japan from October 18 to 24, with events across 18 Para sports.

Elena Rybakina

Kazakhstan’s Elena Rybakina Wins US Open Ahead of World No. 1 Debut

Kazakhstan’s Elena Rybakina has won the US Open women’s singles title, defeating Aryna Sabalenka 6-4, 5-7, 6-2 in New York to claim the third Grand Slam championship of her career. Rybakina entered the final having already secured the world No. 1 ranking following her quarterfinal victory over Zheng Qinwen. She will officially take the top position when the new WTA rankings are published on Monday, becoming the first player representing Kazakhstan to reach No. 1 in singles. The US Open title adds to her Wimbledon championship in 2022 and Australian Open victory earlier this year. She has now won three of the four Grand Slam tournaments. Sabalenka entered the final as world No. 1 and two-time defending US Open champion. The match was also a rematch of this year’s Australian Open final, which Rybakina won. Rybakina has become one of Kazakhstan’s most prominent international athletes. Her run in New York included victories over Naomi Osaka, Zheng and Coco Gauff before the final. Speaking during the tournament, Rybakina said she was “very proud representing Kazakhstan” and noted growing interest in tennis among children in the country. Her success has marked a series of firsts for Kazakhstan. She became the first player representing the country to win a Grand Slam singles title at Wimbledon and is now the first to reach the top of the world rankings.

Elena Rybakina

Kazakhstan’s Elena Rybakina To Become World No. 1

Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan has secured the No. 1 ranking for the first time in her career after defeating Zheng Qinwen of China in the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open on Wednesday. Rybakina, 27, is the first man or woman from Kazakhstan to ascend to the top of the rankings, according to the WTA. She overtakes Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus and will officially become the new No. 1 in singles when the updated rankings are released after the U.S. Open on September 14, the WTA said. Moscow-born Rybakina said she dreamed of becoming the world’s top-ranked player since she was a young girl. "I’m so proud of this moment,” she said in remarks that were posted by the WTA. “I want to thank my whole team for their support and being able to celebrate this achievement with me." President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev of Kazakhstan congratulated Rybakina, commending her for her talent, hard work, self- belief, and “exemplary conduct” on and off the court. “With this remarkable achievement, you have brought great pride to Kazakhstan and inscribed your name in the history of world tennis. Your journey inspires thousands of young athletes in our country and millions of tennis fans around the globe,” Tokayev said. Rybakina has had particularly strong results over the last year, winning the 2025 WTA Finals title as well as the second Grand Slam title of her career at the 2026 Australian Open. She won Wimbledon in 2022. The Kazakh beat Zheng 3-6, 6-1, 6-4. She was down 3-4 in the third set and faced a break point that would have put Zheng in a commanding position and serving for the match. But Rybakina turned things around with a run of points and is now in her first U.S. Open semifinal.

Obituary

Sobir Ruziev, Soviet Fencer Who Elevated Uzbek Sport, Dies at 73

He was once described as Uzbekistan’s chief musketeer. Born in what was the Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan, Sobir Ruziev moved to Tashkent, was selected as a teen-ager by a fencing coach and rose to the top of the sport as a Soviet athlete, earning a silver medalist in the team foil category in the 1980 Moscow Olympics and coming fourth in the individual competition. He later helped to build sports institutions in an independent Uzbekistan. On August 22 of this year, Ruziev’s death was announced by the National Olympic Committee of Uzbekistan. The committee, which noted he was one of its former chairmen, didn’t mention the cause of death. Ruziev was 73 years old. The Asian Fencing Federation said Ruziev made an “outstanding contribution” to sport in Uzbekistan and promoted fencing across Asia, especially among young people. Today, athletes from Central Asia have established themselves at the highest international level in some sports. Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Shaidorov won Olympic figure skating gold at the Winter Olympics this year. Then there is Bakhodir Jalolov, the heavyweight boxer from Uzbekistan who won Olympic gold in Paris in 2024 and the Tokyo games in 2021. Ruziev was among elite competitors from Central Asia who excelled in international sports in decades past as well. That was when they were performing under the flag of the Soviet Union, whose collapse in 1991 opened the way to independence for the former Soviet republics. As a Soviet fencer, Ruziev was also a three-time world champion in the men’s team foil event, and individual foil champion in the Soviet Union in 1980. He received honorary state titles for his sporting achievements from both the Soviet Union and, later, Uzbekistan. In an interview several years ago, Ruziev talked about how hard it was to get onto the Soviet national fencing team because attention was focused on the central areas of the USSR, rather than on the more distant republics. He said in the interview with the Russian Fencing Federation in 2020 that Central Asia was considered peripheral and that you had to be in the top five in your sport out of the total Soviet population of roughly 300 million. Ruziev had hoped to compete in the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, but the Soviet Union boycotted the games after the United States skipped the 1980 Olympics in Moscow because of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. The Uzbek fencer was actually born in Kyrgyzstan, also a former Soviet republic, and took up fencing as a teen-ager in Tashkent. After the end of his competitive career, he returned to Tashkent to coach. So his career spanned two eras – representing the Soviet Union at the highest level, and helping to promote sports development in Uzbekistan. In an interview several years ago, Ruziev said he was originally interested in football but coaches didn’t admit him to their training groups. Eventually, Ksenia Arkadyevna Tadzhieva, a Russian fencing coach, selected him as a pupil, Ruziev told Olamsport, a sports news platform in...