March 19, 2006

(Sunrise, FL) – Dmitry Tursunov came out swinging in the BMW Tennis Championship final, looking like a man on a mission. His opponent, Spain’s Alberto Martin, just didn’t have enough firepower to unsettle the big-hitting Russian, who served and returned well throughout the contest.

“I’m not sure he played his best match,” Tursunov said. “I came out expecting a very tough match, and it’s always better to come out preparing for a tough match than expecting to steam-roller someone. So I think I prepared well for it, and I put a lot of pressure on him and that resulted in him not playing so well.”

Tursunov had been taken to three grueling tiebreaker sets in Saturday’s semi-final by the powerful Croatian, Ivo Karlovic – a match that roared by like a bullet-train, with a succession of short, hard-driving points. “It’s definitely a bit easier to play someone slower,” Tursunov said. “It’s like you drive a car on the freeway and then you come back on the city street, and you still drive the same speed.”

Although the two have never played against each other in a regulation ATP tour event or a Grand Slam, Tursunov knew what to expect from the graceful Spaniard, whose precise, consistent topspin ground strokes and slices weren’t enough of a counter-punch to hurt him Sunday. “I think with players like that, my strengths are hitting the ball hard, and he’s a player that’s not going to miss a lot,” Tursunov said. “With him, I didn’t want to end up in long rallies because that’s his game. So my strategy was to keep him off balance and never give him a comfortable shot, because once he’s in the rally he feels fairly good – and if I kept him on the defensive, it was a better strategy.”

Tursunov said he’s been training hard the past two weeks, doing lots of running and fitness work – in preparation for the long summer tennis season ahead. It’s a good thing Tursunov has been logging the tough workouts - because he had to return after the singles final to play in the doubles final with American Goran Dragicevic. They lost to the Czech team Petr Pala and Robin Vik – but at least Tursunov can say he’ll hit the Nasdaq-100 next week, as match-tough as possible.

“As I get older, I start to realize there are no short cuts in these things,” the 27-year-old Russian said, “and you have to put in the work to get the results.

Gabe Norona, Tournament Director
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