Temper puts Tursunov in spotlight

It's almost unheard of in sports.

Upset at what he said were repeated mistakes on line calls, Folsom resident Dmitry Tursunov stormed off the court in a Wimbledon warmup tournament last month.

The 25-year-old Moscow native and Chris Haggard of South Africa were losing to Italians Simone Bolelli and Andreas Seppi 6-4, 3-1 in the first round of the Slazenger Open in Nottingham, England, at the time.

ATP rules state that a player may not leave the court without the umpire's consent.

Tursunov, seeded sixth in singles, was kicked out of the tournament, fined 3,000 Euros (about $4,700) and prevented from possibly improving a few notches from No. 33 in the world rankings. He also forfeited 6,700 Euros (about $10,500) in prize money.

In a telephone interview Monday, Tursunov said the chair umpire should have overruled "eight or nine" line calls against him and Haggard.

"They were obvious mistakes," said Tursunov, who will make his only appearance of the World TeamTennis season for the Capitals tonight in Roseville. "It's understandable. It was a first-round doubles match on a side court. Obviously, you can't have the best umpire.

"My argument was that you should have someone capable of umpiring. Otherwise, you might as well have a lottery and let a lucky fan umpire the match. I felt partially the only way to have that issue brought to the attention of the ATP was to leave the court. Players complain, and nothing gets done."

Tursunov, though, said he regrets his action.

"It was a spontaneous decision and maybe not the best one. If anything positive came out of the incident, it's that the ATP is looking into this problem and hopefully will figure out a solution," he said.

Greg Sharko, who has worked for the ATP Tour since 1986, said he could recall only one other instance of a player walking off the court.

Former Stanford All-American Jeff Tarango quit during a third-round singles match at Wimbledon in 1995 after accusing chair umpire Bruno Rebeuh of corruption. Tarango's wife later slapped Rebeuh on the cheek.

Also, former top-five player Jose-Luis Clerc of Argentina defaulted to Ivan Lendl during the rain-delayed final of a 1982 tournament in Houston. Chair umpire Zeno Pfau grant- ed Lendl's request to move the match to a lighted court earlier than Clerc said he had been promised.

Although Tursunov is mild-mannered with a dry sense of humor off the court – he's the ATP Tour's resident blogger – he is no stranger to controversy.

Tursunov was fined $7,500 after an incident at Wimbledon two years ago.

Two games from reaching his first Grand Slam quarterfinal, the 27th seed lost his serve to trail 22nd-seeded Jarkko Nieminen of Finland 8-7 in the fifth set. Tursunov then angrily hit a ball that struck the bottom of umpire Fergus Murphy's chair.

Murphy penalized Tursunov one point, and Tursunov lost the game and match. When the player went to shake Murphy's hand, Tursunov tugged at it and waved a finger at him.

In 2004, Tursunov's only previous WTT season, he missed the Capitals' semifinal playoff loss to the Newport Beach Breakers in New York because he had advanced to the quarterfinals of a nearby ATP Tour tournament.

The league's Male MVP and Male Rookie of the Year that season, Tursunov had entered the tournament, he said then, without knowing of an ATP rule that forbids playing in concurrent events. WTT fined him $20,000.

Money is not a problem for Tursunov these days. He reached the French Open doubles semifinals last month and is on pace to collect nearly $1 million this year.

A key member of Russia's 2006 Davis Cup championship team, Tursunov will play in the Olympics next month for the first time.

"It's a very rare opportunity for me," he said.

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