[7]Tursunov played his first match in June 1998 against Chris Groer in a Futures event in Los Angeles and won, but lost in the following round.

He reached another final in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, losing to Scott Barron and won two more Futures events in Malibu, California over José de Armas and in Scottsdale, Arizona over Stefan Wauters.

[citation needed] In 2001, Tursunov won the Futures event in Boca Raton over Jeff Morrison, then the Dallas Challenger defeating Justin Bower.

After these two lower-level tournament successes, Tursunov qualified for his first ATP event in 2001 Kroger St. Jude International and made the quarterfinals, earning his first top-100 win over then world No.

He continued playing on the Challenger circuit, reaching three quarterfinals, but his form suffered after his impact in Memphis because of what doctors believed was a bulging disk in his back.

Tursunov was forced to miss six months and did not come back to tennis until June 2002, That year, he won another title on the United States Futures circuit and reached a Challenger semifinal and two quarterfinals.

[citation needed] After making two finals on the ATP Challenger Tour in Aptos losing to Jeff Salzenstein and in the Bronx, New York to Ivo Karlović, Tursunov qualified for his first Grand Slam event at the US Open defeating former world-number-one and then world No.

After the US Open loss to Fabrice Santoro in the second round, Tursunov was forced out of tennis again for seven months with a broken vertebra suffered in a boating accident.

2006 was a successful year for Tursunov as he achieved his highest ever ranking thus far, he began by reaching the quarterfinals of Qatar Open and Sydney International losing to eventual finalists Gaël Monfils and Igor Andreev, respectively.

He then won his first career title at the Kingfisher Airlines Tennis Open defeating Tommy Robredo in the semifinals and Tomáš Berdych in the final.

On 6 January 2007, Tursunov won the Hopman Cup in Perth, Western Australia, while representing Russia alongside Nadia Petrova.

In the final, Tursunov defeated Tommy Robredo in straight sets, after teammate Petrova's victory over Anabel Medina Garrigues.

Following this match was a pro set mixed doubles between Russians Tursunov and Nadia Petrova and Spaniards Tommy Robredo and Anabel Medina Garrigues.

During the grass-court season he reached the semifinals of Queen's Club Championships and Nottingham Open to big servers Andy Roddick and Ivo Karlović.

Tursunov lost in the first round of Rotterdam to Rafael Nadal, but combined with Tomáš Berdych to win the doubles title, defeating Mikhail Youzhny and Philipp Kohlschreiber in the final.

At Roland Garros, Tursunov won his first two matches against Daniel Brands and Guillermo García López, and then lost to Jérémy Chardy in straight sets.

In Nottingham, Tursunov walked off the court when losing by a set and a break in a first-round doubles match after disagreeing with a line call.

He lost to eventual champion Andy Murray, also in the third round, at the Cincinnati Masters, after earning his third victory of the year over Richard Gasquet.

At the US Open, Tursunov reached the third round by beating Eduardo Schwank and Victor Hănescu, before losing to compatriot Nikolay Davydenko.

Tursunov celebrated his fifth ATP title win at the Open de Moselle in Metz, beating Paul-Henri Mathieu in the final.

On grass, he reached the second round of the Gerry Weber Open, losing to Philipp Kohlschreiber, and won the Eastbourne International, defeating Canadian Frank Dancevic in the final, his first grass-court title.

He won his first ATP match of the year at the Washington Open, defeating Teymuraz Gabashvili before falling to Tomáš Berdych.

In Russia as a wild card, he fell in the first round of the Kremlin Cup and reached the semifinals of the St. Petersburg Open, losing to compatriot Mikhail Youzhny.

[citation needed] Tursunov began 2011 by losing in the qualifying draw of the Brisbane International to Peter Luczak and the first round of the Australian Open to Victor Troicki.

At his final Wimbledon warm-up, the Rosmalen Open, he had wins over Robert Kendrick, Nicolas Mahut, Santiago Giraldo, and third seed Xavier Malisse in the semifinals.

As Tursunov's form started to improve and he came into calculation for selection in the Russia Davis Cup team, the problems he was having obtaining United States citizenship became apparent.

"[9] In spite of this, Tursunov was selected for Russia in the Davis Cup semi final against Croatia and won his dead rubber match against Ivo Karlović.

He defeated Richard Gasquet in five sets in the fourth rubber of the quarterfinal; consequently sending the Russians into the semi-finals of the Davis Cup.

Despite, earning the winning match in the quarterfinals and semifinals, Tursunov only played doubles partnering with Marat Safin, which they won to give Russia a 2–1 lead.

[citation needed][6] Tursunov was named in the four-man team that played the United States in the Davis Cup final in 2007, in Portland, Oregon, from 30 November to 2 December 2007.