Dmitry Tursunov

Dmitry Igorevich Tursunov (Дми́трий И́горевич Турсу́нов; born 12 December 1982) is a former Russian tennis player and a coach.

At age 12 he moved to the United States to train and further his prospects of becoming a professional player.

Tursunov played his first match in June 1998 against Chris Groer in a Futures event in Los Angeles and won, but lost in the following round.

In 1999, the Russian played in the Futures events in Philippines and United States and was able to reach two semifinals and a quarterfinal.

In 2000, he broke a leg in January, which forced him to miss four months of the season.

When he came back, he continued playing in Futures events in the United States.

He reached his first Futures final in Haines City, Florida, but lost to Australian Jaymon Crabb.

He then won his first Futures title the following week, defeating another Australian Peter Luczak.

He reached another final in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, losing to Scott Barron and won two more Futures events in Malibu, California over José de Armas and in Scottsdale, Arizona over Stefan Wauters.

In 2001, Tursunov won the Futures event in Boca Raton over Jeff Morrison, then the Dallas Challenger defeating Justin Bower.

After these two lower-level tournament successes, Tursunov qualified for his first ATP event in 2001 Kroger St. Jude International and made the quarterfinals, earning his first top-100 win over then world No. 51, Greg Rusedski along the way, before losing to eventual champion Mark Philippoussis.

He continued playing on the Challenger circuit, reaching three quarterfinals, but his form suffered after his impact in Memphis because of what doctors believed was a bulging disk in his back.

He returned after two months away, and then suffered a stress fracture in his leg.

Tursunov was forced to miss six months and did not come back to tennis until June 2002, That year, he won another title on the United States Futures circuit and reached a Challenger semifinal and two quarterfinals.

After making two finals on the ATP Challenger Tour in Aptos losing to Jeff Salzenstein and in the Bronx, New York to Ivo Karlović, Tursunov qualified for his first Grand Slam event at the US Open defeating former world number one and then world No. 14, Gustavo Kuerten, in five sets, earning his first top-20 win before losing in the third round to Xavier Malisse.

Continuing on after the US Open, he won two consecutive Challenger titles: in Mandeville, Louisiana over Jan Hernych, and in San Antonio, Texas over Sébastien de Chaunac, and then the semifinals of his next two Challenger tournaments.

At the end of 2003, he finished the year ranked in the top 100 for the first time in his career.

Tursunov started the season of 2004 losing in the first rounds of Chennai Open and Australian Open, but won Waikoloa Challenger over Alejandro Falla.

He then reached the quarterfinals of the Cellular South Cup losing to Mardy Fish.

He then played in his first Masters event but lost in the first rounds of Pacific Life Open and NASDAQ-100 Open.

He then reached the quarterfinals of U.S. Clay Court Championships losing to eventual champion Tommy Haas.

He then lost in the first round in his next three ATP Tour in the Torneo Godó, French Open, and Stella Artois Championships.

He came back at the 2005 Indian Wells Masters tournament losing to Agustín Calleri.

In his next tournaments he reached the second rounds of French Open and Stella Artois Championships, and the first round of Nottingham Open.

At Wimbledon, Tursunov achieved his best ever performance in a Grand Slam tournament by making the fourth round.

In his second-round match against then world No. 9, Tim Henman, he had to play in a Wimbledon club shirt as two of his shirts were stolen from the locker room before the match.

He eventually defeated the local hope in five sets, earning his first top-ten win of his career.

He eventually lost in the fourth round to Sébastien Grosjean.

He then reached the second rounds of RCA Championships and Los Angeles Open, the first rounds of Western & Southern Financial Group Masters and Pilot Pen Tennis and reached also the second round of his next four tournaments including the US Open.

At the Kremlin Cup, he was able to reach the semifinals losing to compatriot Igor Andreev.

His career-high singles ranking was world No. 20, achieved in October 2006.

Tursunov jokes about his lack of ability and success on clay courts.

He was sponsored by Fila and Wilson.

He helped the Russian Davis Cup team win the 2006 Davis Cup and reach the finals of the 2007 Davis Cup.

Tursunov began playing tennis in Moscow at the age of five when his father made him play a few hours a day.

He came to the United States to train with Vitaly Gorin.

"I practiced a few hours a day. My dad realized fairly early that I had a lot of potential. A lot of people criticize him for basically choosing that career for me. He understood that I didn’t have many options to make money and since he really liked tennis, he decided that I was to be a tennis player. It just happened that I was naturally good at it."

However, he rebounded in the Wimbledon Championships upsetting 19th seed and compatriot Marat Safin in the first round and eventually fell to ninth seed Carlos Moyá in the third round.

At the TD Waterhouse Cup, he was able to reach his first ATP Tour semifinals retiring against Lleyton Hewitt.

After the US Open loss to Fabrice Santoro in the second round, Tursunov was forced out of tennis again for seven months with a broken vertebra suffered in a boating accident.