Forli (Italy) ATP Challenger series

[prasen9]

SaKuMuku leading 5-3, 15-0, 30-0. Won first set.

Second Set: 0-1, 1-1, 15-15, ..., broken, 2-4, breaks back, 4-5, 40-40 on serve, Ad in, attaboy, 5-5. Now go and break his serve please. 5-5, 40-40, deuce ... 6-6, 2-2, mini-break 3-4, ..., 7-6 wins!!!

Go SaKu (for the finals now).

[Dinesh]

Sasikumar takes the first set off his Hungarian opponent. 6-3. Looks pretty determined, so far.

[sameerph]

Yes, great start by Mukund. Piros is a very tough player though. He had 3 top 100 wins late last year and reached big Bratislava challenger final. So, I guess he will come back stronger. Hope Mukund stays at the top of his game.

[Dinesh]

Sasikumar into his second ATP challenger final.

6-3 7-6 win against the Hungarian who had a 1.16 to 5 on betting odds. Clearly the best upset of the tournament.

Faces local player Luca Nardi who received a walkover from Stebe on the semis. Considering the form Sasi in, I’d favor his chances more in winning his first title here. And the results this week will get him a SE spot for next week.

Live rankings show Sasi at #352, and a title tomorrow will move him a further 20 spots. Less than a 2 weeks ago, he was losing cheaply to much lower ranked players in ITFs. What a confidence booster this result will be for the year ahead.

[PKBasu]

[SF] Q-Sasikumar Mukund (IND, 414) d. 7-Zsombor Piros (HUN, 288) 63 76(4)

Surely India's day at the Forli Challenger, with a doubles title for Arjun Kadhe and a singles final for Mukund.

22 year old Piros has been the in-form player at the end of last year, storming from Futures play earlier in the year to win the Bratislava Challenger in November 2021, then beating former US Open champion Marin Cilic (CRO, 30) and John Millman (AUS, 78) in the Davis Cup finals last month. He beat top-seed Jay Clarke in the previous round (QF) here, so this is really a huge scalp for Mukund.

[sameerph]

What a turnaround week this has been for Mukund. From losing in futures a couple of weeks back to coming thru from qualifying to reach final of a challenger in Europe is amazing, Admittedly this is a slightly lower level challenger giving 50 points to a winner but nonetheless it is a great effort and hope he caps it off with a title tomorrow.

[Dinesh]

Mukund’s match against Luca Nardi has started. My prediction - 6-4 6-3 in favor of Mukund.

[sameerph]

Bad start for Mukund. He went double break down at 1-4 in the first set.

He just got 1 break back and then held for 3-4 but Mukund still a break down.

Mukund got broken again lost the first set 3-6. Too many unforced errors from Mukund today so far. Accuracy which was there yesterday is missing today.

[sameerph]

Turned out to be one sided in the end. Nerdi was very good today but Mukund made a lot more unforeced errors than last 2 days. Still, a great week for him.

[F] (Q) Sasi Kumar Mukund (IND,414) l. Luca Nardi (ITA,364)

[Dinesh]

Welp! That was an easy surrender in the second set: the Italian was ruthless and had the crowd backing him up on every point. Nevertheless, what a great week for Mukund who just played his 7th singles match in 7 consecutive days. Gets a day of break before continuing this again on Tuesday for his R1 match against Evan Furness (#290) at the Forli 2 Challenger (same venue).

[PKBasu]

Mukund lost 36 16 to the 18 year old local, who is considered a rising phenom.
Mukund hadn't lost a set in the run-up to the final -- including 2 rounds of qualifiers. But the final was a damp squib

[Rajiv]

Never the less still a marvellous effort from Mukund to reach a Challenger Final coming through the qualies.

Who would have thought couple of weeks ago even in their dream that Mukund would reach a Challenger final after 2 weeks , when he was losing to 1000 ranked guys and string of nobody's.

So just as wished that time for a quick turnaround to over come that slump , hoping that this is the TIanjin Moment like that of Prajnesh.

[jaydeep]

Yes, turned to be really good week for Mukund ... Hopefully he will built on this week's performance.

[PKBasu]

Last week's doubles champions, Arjun Kadhe and Bartolotti, lost in R1 this week to a Taiwan/Japan pair 46 26

[prasen9]

Got tired. Or partied too much after title and had a hangover.