Recovering Tursunov hopes to play in French Open

   Sacramento-area resident Dmitry Tursunov, sidelined for almost three months with a strained tendon in his left wrist, said Thursday that he hopes to return to the circuit by the French Open in late May.
   The 29-year-old Russian, who's right-handed but has a two-handed backhand, hurt the wrist during a tournament at Kuala Lumpur last September. He hasn't played in a tournament since the Australian Open in mid-January and is 0-3 in singles this year.
  Tursunov said his wrist is "getting better" and that he started hitting backhands at the beginning of this week.
  "The doctors say there's no need for surgery," he added.
  Tursunov is ranked No. 76 after reaching a career-high No. 20 and helping Russia win the Davis Cup in 2006. Except for 2005 through 2008, he has been plagued by injuries.
   Early in his career, Tursunov suffered stress fractures in his left foot and ankle, two tennis-related broken vertebrae and a re-fractured vertebra while riding in a boat on the San Joaquin Delta.
   Misfortune returned in 2009 and 2010, when he underwent three operations in less than one year. He had bone spurs, then a bone chip removed from his left ankle. He also had never inflammation relieved and a cyst removed from his left foot.
   No sooner had Tursunov fought back from No. 526 in July 2010 to No. 47 last July than his father and first coach, Igor Tursunov, died of pancreatic cancer at 59 in Moscow. Then came Kuala Lumpur.
   The French Open is scheduled for May 27 through June 10. Tursunov, whose power is blunted on the clay at Roland Garros, reached the third round there in 2006 and 2008 but has lost in the first round the past three years.