Kazakh tennis players got off to a successful start at the 2026 Asian Games in Japan. Today, September 27, all of our racket masters achieved victories. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Kursiv Media.

Anna Danilina, Yulia Putintseva, Sonya Zhiyenbayeva, Zhibek Kulambayeva, Alexander Shevchenko, Timofey Skatov, Denis Yevseyev and Beibit Zhukayev are all, together and individually, contenders for Asian Games medals. Danilina, Putintseva, Kulambayeva and Zhiyenbayeva flew to Japan from China, where they played for the national team in the Billie Jean King Cup.

First day victories

The results of the first day of the tournament:

  • 01Sonya ZHIYENBAYEVA (Kazakhstan, 384) – Aditya KARUNARATNE (Hong Kong, 519) 6:1, 7:5
  • 02Yulia PUTINTSEVA (Kazakhstan, 79) – Ushna SUHAIL (Pakistan) 6:1, 6:0
  • 03Alexander SHEVCHENKO/Timofey SKATOV (Kazakhstan) – Jack CHENG/SING HANGTAM (Hong Kong) 6:3, 6:2
  • 04Denis YEVSEYEV (546)/Beibit ZHUKAYEV (1494) (Kazakhstan) – XU CHICHENG/QIFU WONG (786) (Hong Kong) 6:1, 6:3
  • 05Zhibek KULAMBAYEVA (105)/Beibit ZHUKAYEV (1494) (Kazakhstan) – Ushna SUHAIL/Aqil KHAN (1834) (Pakistan) 6:2, 6:1
  • 06Anna DANILINA (6)/Alexander SHEVCHENKO (Kazakhstan) – Mahin Aftab QURESHI/Aisam QURESHI (Pakistan) 6:3, 7:5

Tennis medals at the Asian Games

Strangely enough, Kazakhstan does not have many tennis medals at the Asian Games. This needs to be corrected in Nagoya.

The XX Summer Asian Games officially opened on September 19 and will end on October 4. Athletes from 45 countries are competing for 460 sets of awards. Kazakhstan's team at the 2026 Asian Games includes 558 athletes in 35 sports.

Achievements on the first day of the Games

On the first day of the Games, Kazakhstan won four gold medals. The champions of the Games were cyclists Rinata Sultanova and Alexey Lutsenko, as well as karatekas Zholaman Bigabyl and Sofya Berultseva. The fifth gold was added to the team's tally by MMA fighter Yerkingali Burkutalin. The sixth – by his teammate in mixed martial arts, Kadyrbek Shynbayev. On September 23, Lutsenko became a two-time champion of the 2026 Asian Games. The eighth gold medal was won on September 24 by rowers Vladislav Yakovlev and Ivan Chernukhin in the men's coxless pairs. Yasmina Toksanbayeva today won the ninth gold in race walking. The tenth gold medal was won by our epee team.

After seven days of the Games, Kazakhstan occupied fifth place in the unofficial medal standings.