Eighteen-year-old Kazakh tennis player Damir Zhalgasbay and 16-year-old American Safir Azam came up just short of the junior US Open 2026 final. In the semifinals, the pair lost to Americans Tanishka Konduri and Marcel Lataka 3:6, 7:6 (8:6), 5:10, according to infohub.kz.
The match unfolded dramatically. After dropping three straight games in the first set — the score went from 2:1 to 2:4 — Damir and Safir were unable to break back for the rest of the set and lost it 3:6. In the second set, the Kazakh and his partner went up 3:1 but let the lead slip. Still, they edged their opponents in the tiebreak, 8:6.
In the end, everything came down to the super tiebreak. For the Kazakh and the American, it was their third of the tournament, and they had won the previous two: 10:4 against Japan's Hugh Kawanashi and Kanta Watanabe, and 10:6 against Puerto Rico's Yannick Alvarez and Ryan Kosada of the United States.
The third super tiebreak went wrong from the start: 1:3, 2:5, 4:7 and 5:10. The hard-fought match lasted 1 hour 27 minutes. Konduri and Lataka won just three more points — 80:77.
In singles, Zhalgasbay put his racket away after his first match against American Jack Secord.
Elena Rybakina is still competing at US Open 2026. Kazakhstan's top seed, who will take over the world tennis ranking on Monday, will face Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka in the final overnight from Saturday to Sunday.
The US Open is an annual hard-court Grand Slam tournament. It is the last of the four majors in the calendar year. The total prize pool — $108 million — is a record for the majors.