Dmitry Tursunov

Dmitry Igorevich Tursunov (; born December 12, 1982, in Moscow, Russia) is a Russian professional male tennis player. He was 12 years old when he came to the United States to train and further his prospects of becoming a professional player.

Tursunov is an offensive baseliner with excellent groundstrokes from both sides , and prefers to play on faster surfaces; he jokes about his lack of ability and success on clay courts. He is sponsored by Fila and Wilson.

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

Tennis career

Tursunov began tennis in Moscow when his father made him play a few hours a day at 5. He came to the United States to train with Vitaly Gorin.

<blockquote>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.

Early Years

Tursunov played his first match in June 1998 against Chris Groer in a Futures event in Los Angeles and won 7–5, 6–4 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 2 semifinals and a...
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