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9/3/2008 7:44:00 PM
By James LaRosa
James' '08 US Open blog
In 2006, the ATP's resident bad boy, Dmitry Tursunov, helped Russia capture the Davis Cup trophy, famously outlasting Andy Roddick in that nearly 5-hour epic semifinal that went 17-15 in the fifth. He's won titles in Mumbai, Indianapolis and Bangkok, and in January captured his fourth in Sydney, defeating Stanislas Warwinka and Richard Gasquet along the way. All crazy-impressive accomplishments that you'd love to read about, that a real journalist would surely ask him about.
Instead, the World No. 27 and I talk cross-dressing, the pitfalls of blogging and his role as pin-up for the tour's randy new 2009 calendar. Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. December.
JL: I talked to Nadia Petrova here last year. I asked her about playing Hopman Cup with you, specifically the final dead rubber where you famously donned her top. I asked her what she did with the shirt afterwards, did she burn it, put it in a museum... She said she laundered it and, as of 8 months later, it was still in rotation. Is that flattering, disturbing..?
DT: Well she didn't say it was in rotation by her. I was still using it.
You ran off with it?
Yeah. (laughs.) No, I don't really know. I thought that it would stretch a little bit.
She claims it didn't.
It didn't? Well I guess she's just downgrading the size of my biceps apparently. I think if she didn't wash it and it was still in rotation, then it would've been flattering. Still with, you know, my scent, my pheromones. But she tried to wash that out...; (shakes his head.)
You've gotten quite the rep for your blogging. Have you ever gotten in trouble for anything you've written?
I said a couple things that I probably shouldn't have said. I called a couple of people out on certain actions or certain traits that...;people are aware of them but they don't like to talk about them. But that comes with the territory, I understand that. If you make fun of people, you'll have people either agreeing with you or disagreeing with you. But I'm not doing it to really make fun of people. I think certain things are funny and we shouldn't have reservations about having a laugh. It's not done with intentional harm.
How did you get involved with the calendar?
Somebody just basically came up and said do you want to do it? I didn't really see any problems with it. A lot of guys seemed a little tentative about that sort of stuff. They're not sure how people are going to react, but I didn't see anything bad about it.
Are you happy with the picture?
Well, yeah. Black and white always makes me look better than I am. (laughs.) I look better in real life than in the pictures.
How sexy do you think you are from 1 - 10? How would you rate yourself?
I think I get better once people get to know me. I'm not being cocky about it, but that's what people tell me. "Once I get to know you you're a little bit better than in the beginning. In the beginning I thought you were a complete a******..."
So you think your personality makes you sexier?
It adds to my appeal. If I have any appeal, my personality would add to it.
I notice you didn't give a number.
I can't give myself a number. If I give myself a high number, I'm being cocky. If I'm not giving myself a high number, then I'm being negative.
That's fair.
I'm 11. (laughs) Damn it I'm hot.
James '08 US Open Blog
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