The situation in the Caucasus, both North and South, currently is one of the most favorable for the development of tennis, the President of the Russian Tennis Federation Shamil Tarpishchev, told Vestnik Kavkaza, stressing that first of all it requires the interest of local authorities.
"Since the sport itself implies year-round play, it is more favorable to develop tennis in the climatic conditions of the Caucasus, of course, now the economic situation is not so good, but the republics of the North Caucasus have not only prospects, but also quite certain expectations of the results," he noted/
"The main problem is that the popularity of tennis in the North Caucasian Federal District is low. Today, there is a system of priority sports in the republics, and there was no subjects from the NCFD among our 24 priority centers, since none of the authorities expressed interest," Shamil Tarpishchev added.
At the same time, there are enough practice courts for tennis players in the South Caucasus, as well as in Central Asia. "I opened a tennis center in Baku. I played and conducted training for a long time in Uzbekistan, Dushanbe, in Armenia's Tsaghkadzor. In Georgia, we held the strongest tournaments at 'Dynamo'," the president of the Russian Tennis Federation recalls.
Shamil Tarpishchev has a special relationship with the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, known for his attention to sports. "In the 60s and 70s, the tournament of the strongest tennis players of the USSR was held in the Azerbaijan SSR. Now the Speaker of the Milli Majlis Oktay Asadov is the president of the Azerbaijani Tennis Federation. I have visited him several times, we discussed the development of our sport. Baku every ear holds the international tournament with participation of Russian players, and I often ask wildcards as an exchange option, with invitation of the Azerbaijani tennis players to participate in Russian tennis tournaments," he said.
Shamil Tarpishchev highly appreciated the level of holding international competitions in Azerbaijan. "I was at the First European Games in Baku from beginning to end and I can say that the tournament was organized perfectly. Soon the republic will host the next Islamic Solidarity Games. I think that such symbolic events unite people and improve the attitude towards the inhabitants of the country, hosting the tournament. So this is only for good," the president of the Russian Tennis Federation concluded.
