Azerbaijan, who won the women’s gold too with a 13-7 win against Mali, won the final against Qatar 13-9.
Inspired by a number of foreign-born stars, the host nation saw off Qatar, and the two additional titles pushed Azerbaijan up to 73 golds in the overall medal table, six ahead of second-placed Turkey.
American-born Marshall Moses gave Azerbaijan the perfect start in the men’s final with a quick two-pointer, although Abdulrahman Saad responded with a free throw for Qatar during a cagey opening to the game.
The host nation gave away rather too many cheap fouls early on, and Qatar briefly threatened to spoil the party at a packed-out Baku Basketball Arena as they moved into a 3-2 lead.
Moses got Azerbaijan back on level terms, though, before two superb two-pointers in quick succession from Amil Hamzayev put the hosts in the driving seat. The Azeri trio of Moses, Hamzayev and Orhan Aydin Haciyeva kept the scoreline ticking over, with the latter sinking two more doubles to stretch their advantage to 12-3.
Qatar rallied in the latter stages, but they perhaps left it too late.
Qatar’s Mubarak Zayid is in with a chance of a bronze medal today in the men’s singles tennis competition.
Wildcard Zayid went down in straight sets 3-6, 2-6 against Turkey’s Anil Yuksel in the semi-final yesterday.
Yuksel set up an all-Turkish final after Altug Celikbilek beat Morocco’s Amine Ahouda in the other semi-final 6-3, 3-6, 6-3.
Zayid and Ahouda will fight it out for the third spot today.
Turkey are set for a tennis gold-medal clean sweep at the Islamic Solidarity Games after their men’s and women’s doubles teams both landed titles yesterday.
Women’s doubles pairing Ayla Aksu and Berfu Cengiz saw off Uzbek duo Sabina Sharipova and Polina Merenkova 6-3, 7-5 to grab gold.
Aksu and Cengiz will go head-to-head for gold in the women’s singles final today. Aksu beat Oman’s Fatma al-Nabhani 7-5, 6-1 win, while Cengiz edged past Uzbekistan’s Sabina Sharipova 6-4, 7-6 (4).
The women’s doubles bronze went to Malaysia after Jawairiah Noordin and Theiviya Selva-Rajoo beat Turkmenistan’s Anastasiya Prenko and Jahan Bayramova in straight sets, 7-6 (0), 6-0.
Celikbilek and Ilhan Sarp Agabigun matched their female compatriots to emerge as champions as they coasted to a straight-sets 6-2, 6-2 triumph over Uzbekistan’s Amal Sultanbekov and Said-Alo Said-Karimov.
The Moroccan duo, Ayoub Chakrouni and Ahouda, claimed bronze after Malaysian pair Mohamed Merzuki and Ahmed Abdul Razak retired after game one of the third set.
