Lukashenko meets with president of Russian Tennis Federation

Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko met with President of the Russian Tennis Federation Shamil Tarpishchev on 13 April, BelTA has learned.

The conversation covered the current state of affairs in tennis, both in terms of domestic competitions and international events. “First of all, we discussed issues related to tennis in our countries and in the world. If we take the results of the Belarusian and Russian tennis players then we will see that we are the world's strongest because we have won practically everything,” the head of the Russian Tennis Federation said.

The parties also discussed support and development of children's and youth sports, readjustment of the competition and training camp calendars in view of the sports situation around Belarus and Russia. The emphasis was made on friendly countries. “The interest is on preserving the system and methods we have developed. We have the same coaches (from the Soviet Union), the same school, the same understanding of classical tennis. We need to support kids from 12 to 19 years old, our future reserves. For this, we have decided on joint competitions and training camps,” Shamil Tarpishchev said.

According to the head of the federation, it is very easy to talk to the president of Belarus about sports and reach mutual understanding, because Aleksandr Lukashenko “is not only an outstanding person, he is also a good specialist in all kinds of sports, because he himself is a keen sportsman”. “We don't have any problems. I think we will not fail in tennis. We have a lot of star players. As far as the system and methods of training is concerned, we are currently not in a worse position in tennis, and maybe even in a better one [in comparison with other sports]. That's good,” Shamil Tarpishchev stressed.

According to him, the federation regularly holds amateur tournaments to popularize tennis. One of them will take place in Minsk in the Tennis Palace of the National Olympic Training Center on 15-16 April. The tournament for the Cup of the Russian embassy in Belarus will be dedicated to the Day of Unity of the two countries. The tournament will feature 16 pairs of tennis players (eight from Russia and Belarus each) including famous politicians, businessmen and public figures.

Shamil Tarpishchev is confident that such competitions give an additional impulse to the development of tennis in the regions and prove that people of absolutely different ages can show themselves in this kind of sport.

belta.by