French Open 2007

Gorin Players at the French

Sacramento’s Gorin Tennis Academy had a strong presence at this year’s French Open with four players traveling across the Atlantic to Europe to compete in one of four most prestigious and revered tennis tournaments in the world. Dmitry Tursunov and Igor Kunitsyn had participated in Men’s Singles and Doubles while Danila Arsenov and Mateusz Kecki had entered the Junior’s draw.
Dmitry Tursunov was seeded #21 in Singles and had lost 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 in Round of 64 to an experienced clay-courter, Fernando Verdasco, from Spain. Igor Kunitsyn, native of Russia, who had started working with Vitaly Gorin at the beginning of this year, had battled a cold virus but not in time for his singles. He bowed out to Florent Serra from France in three sets. “Of course it’s difficult to play when you are sick, especially on the surface that requires a lot of endurance and footwork but Florent is a good player and it would have been a difficult task regardless” – said Igor.
His best Grand Slam result, however, was due a week after the tournament had begun. Roland Garros had seen a string of upsets when Kunitsyn and Tursunov paired up for doubles to face a team of Auckland/Huss in the first round. Huss, a winner of Wimbledon Doubles Crown in 2005 had lost to the Russian team once before but was poised to recoup his loss. The match went to the third set but at 1-1 in the third set Kunitsyn/Tursunov got a break and never looked back.
In the second round, Gorin Tennis Academy players had staged an upset of the current #2 team in the world, Hanley/Ullyett, in straight sets (6-4,7-6) to set up an encounter with a formidable French pair of Clement/Llodra who often pair up for Davis Cup matches. “Playing against an experienced team would have been a challenge in itself but playing on Philippe Chatrier (Center Court) against the last French pair in the draw in front of a French crowd was even more nerve-wrecking” – admits Tursunov after the match. Leading with a one set to love and a break in the second, the Russian duo had missed their opportunity to seal the match and saw themselves looking at breakpoints deep in the third set. Managing to hold and breaking at 4-4 in the third set, Tursunov finished off with two aces to book a spot in their first Grand Slam quarter-final. “After practicing on court 2 at Gorin’s the Center Court is no sweat” – joked Tursunov at the completion of the match.
In quarter-finals their run came to a stop as they faced the #4 seeds and winners of Rome Masters event - Zimonjic/Santoro. Missing a couple of opportunities Kunitsyn/Tursunov had lost 6-4, 7-5. “It was a great tournament for us and our best result so far and it’s hard to be upset” - said Igor, “We are playing for the first time since October of 06 and some of these teams play together week-in, week-out. But we are playing well together and hopefully there will be more good results to follow.” “Losing to Top 10 team with a close score says something about our level of play so I think there is a lot of positives no matter how you look at it” – added Dmitry.

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