Russians stir L.A. tennis

Early days of one-week tennis events are often a lot like following a baseball team playing out the string in August.

Or at least until Dmitry Tursunov strolls into the interview room.

The Moscow-born, Northern California-based Tursunov enlivened the proceedings at UCLA last year, reaching his first ATP tour final before losing to Tommy Haas in the Countrywide Classic.

Though slowed by an injured left wrist earlier this year, he didn’t disappoint in his first appearance back in Los Angeles. The fifth-seeded Tursunov was efficient in his 6-1, 6-4 victory against Danai Udomchoke of Thailand in the opening round and will next play Vincent Spadea or Thiago Alves of Brazil.

Tursunov versus Spadea could be fascinating. Blogger against the rapper/author.

Spadea was his own best salesman for his co-written book “Break Point” last summer, and Tursunov gained a bit of underground fame with his blogging insights at tour life.

So, if Tursunov is the higher-ranked player, who is the better writer, Spadea or Tursunov?

“Writer or rapper?” Tursunov said.

Good question, that.

“I don’t know,” he said. “I’ve never seen him write. But he does have a book. We’re both considered class clowns, but don’t know who is the bigger one,” Tursunov said.

Tursunov said he backed off on his blogging -- though third-seeded Marat Safin, who pulled out a 6-3, 6-7 (4), 7-6 (2) victory later on Monday, could have been a full-time subject.

Tursunov’s mind has been occupied elsewhere. The 24-year-old suffered the injury, to his wrist tendon, in January, and didn’t really hit stride until reaching the semifinals in back-to-back grass-court events, at Queen’s Club and Nottingham in June.

“I tried lot of therapy, little voodoo ... don’t write that down,” he said. “People think that what I say is true -- like my Barbra Streisand addiction, walnut shell collection.”

Yes, it was probably the first time voodoo, Streisand and walnut shells have been used in the same quote. He did deliver some pertinent observations on developing interest in the sport.

“They have to promote it more and put it more on TV,” he said. “You have poker 24 hours a day and rock-paper-scissors competition. So I think people want to see that more than they want to see tennis.... Players [need to] put forth a little more effort to promote it any way they can.

“You don’t have to walk out there and beat your chest and scream, ‘Tennis is the best sport ever.’ But I think you could be more friendly with the fans and do a little bit more to make the fans want to come back again.”

Other winners included wild-card entrant Nicolas Kiefer of Germany, a finalist here in 2004. Kiefer, like Tursunov, also had an injured wrist. It required surgery and kept him off the tour nearly a year, as he returned in June.

Kiefer defeated Teimuraz Gabashvili of Russia, 6-3, 6-3, and will next play No. 4 David Nalbandian of Argentina or Igor Kunitsyn of Russia.

In the meantime, it simply wouldn’t be a tournament at UCLA unless something quirky happened. Last year, the event lost Andre Agassi and Andy Roddick in the space of a few hours. But that was late in the week, on Friday.

The previous year, Taylor Dent and Mardy Fish were scheduled to meet in the featured night match on Tuesday, but both withdrew from the tournament because of injuries.

Monday’s development wasn’t nearly as farcical. Fabrice Santoro of France, fresh off his title in the Hall of Fame Tennis Championships on Sunday in Newport, R.I., apparently wasn’t so fresh.

He never made it to Los Angeles; officials cited “fatigue” as the reason for Santoro’s withdrawal. Two thoughts: At least he didn’t make up some injury, and, well, he is 34.

His withdrawal benefited Phillip King of Long Beach. King got into the draw as a lucky loser and will play qualifier Ricardo Mello of Brazil today. Even if King went out in the first round, he would make slightly more than $5,000.

Maybe he’d better send Santoro a thank-you text message.

lisa.dillman@latimes.com

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Featured matches:

Today at the Countrywide Classic being played at the Los Angeles Tennis Center on the UCLA campus:

STADIUM COURT

Starting at 11 a.m.

Vincent Spadea vs. Thiago Alves, Brazil, followed by David Nalbandian (4), Argentina, vs. Igor Kunitsyn, Russia, followed by Sam Querrey vs. Mardy Fish (6).

Starting at 7:30 p.m.

Alexander Peya, Austria vs. James Blake (2), followed by Fernando Gonzalez (1), Chile, vs. Zack Fleishman.