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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.

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.

tennis

Kazakhstani Tennis Player Sonja Zhiyenbayeva Surges in Rankings

Most of the international attention on women tennis players from Kazakhstan goes to Elena Rybakina, the second-ranked, Moscow-born player who has won two Grand Slam singles titles. But Sonja Zhiyenbayeva, a Kazakh talent still far from the elite group at the top of the game, has delivered such strong results this month that the WTA included her in a list of “notable ranking movements.” Zhiyenbayeva, a former junior number 15, moved up 288 spots to 450 in the rankings after winning her first W75 tournament as a qualifier in Ourense, Spain, beating Isabella Shinikova of Bulgaria for the title on August 9. The 20-year-old Kazakhstani followed up that victory by winning the W35 title in Vigo, Spain, on August 16, defeating China’s Yufei Ren, who was ranked 332. The Vigo title should push Zhiyenbayeva’s world ranking closer to 400. “Thus, in the space of two weeks in Spain, Zhiyenbayeva captured back-to-back titles — the W75 in Ourense and the W35 in Vigo, continuing her impressive run of form on the professional tour,” the Kazakhstan Tennis Federation said. The numbers in W75 and W35 refer to the ranking points that the champion acquires. Zhiyenbayeva's accumulation of 110 points in the hard court tournaments this month has enabled her to leapfrog over hundreds of other players in the world rankings. She is an economics student at Pepperdine University in California. On her LinkedIn profile, Zhiyenbayeva says her experience as a professional tennis player has helped her develop “discipline, adaptability, and the ability to perform under pressure.” Zhiyenbayeva was born in Almaty and moved to Germany at a young age with her Kazakh mother and German father. She represented Germany as a tennis player but changed her “sport nationality” to join Kazakhstan´s national team in 2024, state-run media in Kazakhstan reported.

World Table Tennis Championships

Astana to Host 2027 World Table Tennis Championships

The ITTF World Table Tennis Championships Finals Astana 2027 will take place in Kazakhstan’s capital from May 22 to May 30, 2027, becoming the first world table tennis championship ever held in Central Asia. The tournament was officially presented at the ADD Table Tennis Center Astana. According to Kazakhstan’s Vice Minister of Tourism and Sports Serik Zharasbayev, the country will host seven international Olympic sports tournaments in 2027, with the World Table Tennis Championships expected to become one of the year’s largest sporting events. Representatives from more than 100 countries are expected to participate. The main venue will be Barys Arena, which has a capacity of approximately 8,000 spectators. Additional matches will be hosted at the Qazaqstan Athletics Sports Complex, which can accommodate around 6,800 people. “Our capital was selected to host the World Championships for several reasons, one of the main ones being the availability of major sports facilities that fully meet international requirements,” Zharasbayev told journalists during a briefing. According to the vice minister, a technical delegation from the International Table Tennis Federation has already inspected the venues and gave the tournament infrastructure high marks. “The entire infrastructure is being evaluated from the airport to the sports facilities. At this point, Kazakhstan, and Astana in particular, possess all the necessary resources to host competitions of this level,” he said. Zharasbayev also noted that table tennis remains one of the fastest-growing sports in Kazakhstan. Organizers expect approximately 1,000 athletes to take part in the championships. The tournament will also serve as one of the key ranking qualification stages for the 2028 Summer Olympic Games. Medals will be awarded in five categories: men’s singles, women’s singles, men’s doubles, women’s doubles, and mixed doubles. Asiya Ilyasova, the tournament’s marketing and commercial director, said organizers are hopeful for a strong performance by Kazakhstan’s national team. “We have a strong national team that has consistently delivered high-level results in recent years. For example, Kirill Gerassimenko and Alan Kurmangaliyev are ranked among the world’s top 30 players. They will represent Kazakhstan at the World Championships, and we have high expectations for them,” Ilyasova said. According to organizers, Astana is expected to welcome large numbers of foreign visitors, including fans and official delegations, particularly from Southeast Asian countries where table tennis enjoys enormous popularity. In the coming months, organizers plan to launch competitions among souvenir manufacturers to create products featuring Kazakh national motifs, as well as contests for fashion designers to develop uniforms for volunteers, staff, and official tournament merchandise. An open competition will also be announced to design the official mascot of the championships. The Times of Central Asia previously reported that Astana will also host the 2026 Future Games, an international tournament combining traditional sports and esports disciplines.

Elena Rybakina

Rybakina Wins on Clay in Stuttgart, in Run-up to Roland Garros

World number two Elena Rybakina defeated Karolina Muchova to win the WTA title in Stuttgart, Germany on Sunday, elevating her to the top spot in the points race to qualify for the season-ending championship in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in November. Rybakina’s 7-5, 6-1 victory over Muchova was the Kazakhstani player’s 13th title - and the first repeat title of her career after winning 12 titles in 12 different tournaments. She won in Stuttgart in 2024. In the Stuttgart quarterfinals this year, Rybakina saved two match points against Leylah Fernandez in a three-hour battle. The title on clay in Stuttgart gives the Russia-born player momentum ahead of the French Open, which begins next month. Rybakina won the Australian Open this year and is also the 2022 Wimbledon champion.