$75K(+H) Karshi/Samarkand Challengers, May 7-20 2018

[arjun2761]

Good to see consistency by Mukund. Normally, a low ranked player like his opponent should be as easy as it gets at this level but he may be tough on his home turf. Good luck to Mukund who had the ability to win this one...

[sameerph]

Mukund's match against Fayziev going on serve with Mukund leading 3-2 in the first set.

Mukund missed 3 bp chances in the next game and then got broken at 15 to be down 3-4 in the first set.

And with that 1 break against, Mukund lost the first set 4-6.

[sameerph]

Mukund got broken in the first game of the second set but has come back strongly to break back twice and leads 5-2 in the second set.

And he breaks Fayizev for the third time in the set to take the second set 6-2.

[sameerph]

Damn, in the third set, Mukund was up 3-2 and has 2 bp chances at 40-15 but could not convert and then played a very tentative service game to get broken for 3-4.

And Fayizev was serving for the match at 5-4 from 0-30 down Mukund took 4 straight points to level it at 5-5.

And he holds at 30 for 6-5.

[nitin28]

he broke at right time.. sasi can play shots at both fronts.. he is also getting some bad calls which is having impact on his game..

[sameerph]

And it goes into a third set tie break.

From 2-3 down, Mukund goes 5-3 up but gives the mini back for 5-4 but takes both points on Fayizev serve to take the set and the match.

At $75K(+H) Karshi Challenger, Uzbekistan

[R1] (Q) Sasi Kumar Mukund (IND,422) d. Sanjar Faziyev (UZB,458) 46 62 76(4)

[suresh]

I tried watching a few games and then Sasi got broken and so I decided not to watch -- maybe I am a bad omen for Mukund like SSP. Great to see Mukund win. Mukund gets to play the second seed N. MILOJEVIC (SRB, 200) in the second round. Tough match but he has no issues playing higher ranked players.

[meyyis]

In Doubles:
[R1] (1) N. Sriram Balaji (IND)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) d. Mikhail Elgin (RUS)/ Aleksandr Nedovyesov (KAZ) : 6-3, 7-5
[R1] (4) Saketh Myneni (IND)/ Vijay Sunder Prashanth (IND) l. Yaraslav Shyla (BLR)/ Tsung-Hua Yang (TPE) : 2-6, 6-7

Up Next
[QF] (1) N. Sriram Balaji (IND)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) vs. Altug Celikbilek (TUR) / Cem Ilkel (TUR)

[prasen9]

get Ban-list;
add Ban-list, suresh;
save Ban-list

[suresh]

^

[sameerph]

Surprising loss for Saki and VSP in doubles. Now, let them go to Samarkand early and prepare for singles qualies over the weekend.

It was quite remarkable how Mukund fought back today from being 2 points away from losing the match with Fayizev serving at 5-4, 30-0. He has got the confidence going right now and should go for everything against second seeded Milojevic. He is 5-9 at challenger level this year and is not in great form.

[jaydeep]

Terrific hard fought win by Mukund ... Definitely, he is playing with high confidence.
Next, 2nd seed Milojevic.

At $75K+H Karshi Challenger 2018, Uzbekistan

[R2] (Q) Sasi Kumar Mukund (IND,418) vs (2) Nikola Milojevic (SRB,208)

[PKBasu]

In Doubles:
[R1] (1) N. Sriram Balaji (IND)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) d. Mikhail Elgin (RUS)/ Aleksandr Nedovyesov (KAZ) : 6-3, 7-5

Even if Vishnu/Balaji are top seeds, this was a high-quality win over a very tough pair. Elgin is still ranked 135 in doubles (he had a career-high of 53), and Nedovyesov is a reasonable doubles player (with a career-high doubles ranking of 72, albeit now ranked 232 at age 31).
That Mukund beat Elgin quite comfortably in Q1 is noteworthy too. Although Mikhail Elgin is 36 now and ranked in the 800s in singles, he had a career high of 123 in singles (nine years ago) and can certainly still play pretty good singles when he chooses to.

And Mukund's win over 23 year old Sanjar Fayziev in his home country is a pretty good one too. Fayziev is not only a Davis Cup star already, he was ranked as high as 253 in singles just ten months ago.

[Sin Hombre]

Mukund is also at a career high ranking now so well done to him.

[PKBasu]

Yes, now ranked in the top-400 for the first time! Mukund is at a career-high of 390 in the live ATP rankings.

It is actually quite audacious for a player ranked that low to be regularly playing Challengers, but a confident Mukund is showing week after week that he definitely belongs at this level.