Sashi Menon thread

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Sashi Menon thread

Post by PKBasu »

Sashi Menon was a top-100 type player for much of the 1970s, but (according to the ATP) reached a top ranking of only 87. We remember some excellent wins by him in the Davis Cup thread. Here are some of the golden moments of his doubles career:

The doubles title in the old Indian Open in 1978, beating the young Yannick Noah and partner in the final:
http://www.atptennis.com/en/tournaments ... es=Doubles

That was his third doubles title on the ATP tour that year (sadly, it was the only year he won titles!). The first of these was at the Mexico City WCT tournament on hard courts (with Gene Mayer):
http://www.atptennis.com/en/tournaments ... es=Doubles

And the second title was at the clay court tour event in Lagos:
http://www.atptennis.com/en/tournaments ... es=Doubles
Here, incidentally, Sashi Menon also made the singles semifinal.

Sashi must have been a pretty hot property in the doubles circuit in 1978, winning three titles and partnering such excellent players as Gene Mayer and Sherwood Stewart.

He also made the doubles final of the tour event in Guadalajara, where he and Gene Mayer beat second seeded John Newcombe/Ray Ruffles in the SF:
http://www.atptennis.com/en/tournaments ... es=Doubles
(Here Sashi also won a round in the singles main draw).

Gene Mayer eventually won the French Open doubles title that year, sadly with a partner other than Sashi!

Sashi's best singles result was making the final of the 1976 Indian Open in Bangalore:
http://www.atptennis.com/en/tournaments ... es=Singles
Both Anand and Ashok Amritraj were in the draw that year, but Chiradeep Mukerjea and Bhanu Nunna made the doubles final! Oh for such depth of talent in our tennis today!!
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Sashi Menon thread

Post by PKBasu »

Here's Sashi Menon's fairly mixed Davis Cup record:

http://www.daviscup.com/teams/player.as ... r=10002163

The biggest win was over the dangerous Kiwi Onny Parun (then ranked in the top 20), and another over Henri Leconte (albeit in a dead rubber).
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Re: Sashi Menon thread

Post by PKBasu »

Sashi Menon's best year on the tour was definitely 1976, but I'm surprised that the ATP says he only reached a ranking of #87 that year. He reached R2 of three of the Slams (Roland Garros, Wimbledon, US Open -- beating the British #1 Roger Taylor at Wimbledon!!), made R2 of 14 tour events he played during the year, the PQF in Hong Kong, the QF of the Sydney Indoor (beating Ray Ruffels in the PQF), and the FINAL of the Indian Open in Bangalore (losing to Kim Warwick).
In 1975, Sashi had nice wins over Charlie Pasarell (twice), Brian Gottfried, Mike Cahill, Dick Dell, but made only one QF (in Chicago on carpet) and lost in R1 of the AO (to Bob Carmichael, the future coach) and R2 of the USO.
In 1977, Sashi made R2 or better in 9 ATP tour events, and made the QF in Los Angeles (beating Charlie Pasarell and Tom Gorman). He lost in R2 of both the Canadian and US Opens to Wojtek Fibak.
Highlights of 1978 for Sashi included making the SF in tour events in Mexico City and Lagos, the R3 (PQF) in Birmingham (beating Aus Davis Cupper John Alexander) and winning the Challenger in Tinton Falls, NJ, but he lost twice to Vijay Amritraj during the year (in the Mexico SF and in Calcutta's R1).
In 1979, Sashi made the QFs of ATP tour stops in Montgomery, AL, and San Jose (Costa Rica), the PQF in Green Bay, WI, beat Pascal Portes (the French Davis Cupper) in Bombay, but lost a 5-setter in the AO to Paul McNamee.
In 1980, Sashi Menon made three QFs (in almost consecutive weeks) in Lagos, San Jose (CostaRica) and Dayton, OH, a fourth QF (or R4, with wins over Ashok Amritraj and Britain's Richard Lewis) in Beckenham, beat another strong Brit (Robin Drysdale) at Wimbledon before losing in 4 sets to Vitas Gerulaitis, beat Mark Edmondson (ex-AO champ) in Boston, made a fifth QF (d. Wolfgang Popp and Ross Case) in Taipei, and two more PQFs in Tokyo and Sydney (beating Colin Dibley and Bill Scanlon). Given that sort of year, he would have had to be ranked in the top-50 (I think the ATP has probably messed up the ranking records).
He had a poor year in 1981, and began playing Challengers in 1982. But in 1982, he made R2 of Wimbledon and the semi-final of the Tokyo Outdoor, beating Tom Gullikson on the way. By the time he beat Henri Leconte in a Davis Cup match (1984), Sashi was 32 and playing less and less on tour. But Sashi Menon had a full 10 years on the ATP tour during which he was almost always in the top-100. 
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Re: Sashi Menon thread

Post by S_K_S »

I think my uncle, Hari Shankar Singh, played Shashi Menon when he came to Patna in the 70's, and if my memory serves me right, he took a set off him. This was when my uncle was no 1 in Bihar. I got my enthusiasm for tennis from him.
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Re: Sashi Menon thread

Post by Rajiv »

apart from being regular on the tour , sashi other active job during playing days was being on the technical committee of AMF HEAD the racquet manufacturer.
and every 80's issue of "tennis magazine" whenever AMF's ad appeared sashi face was there along with tim or tom gulllikson and couple of ladies pros betty stove i think under the heading our technical team.
infact in the later part of his career in early 80's  when in mid 30's he  had a resurrection of sorts reaching 120 something which was entirely due to a  the new racquet a model called "legend" a funny looking oblong oval shaped oversized racquet which he entirely attributed his sucess to and an  coach and lameted had he come across these two(raquet& coach) earlier in his carrer he would have been in a different zone probably top 20 hobnobing with vijay , quite true because aged almost 35 reaching 125 is commendable.
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Re: Sashi Menon thread

Post by PKBasu »

Sashi Menon made the second round in singles at Wimbledon three times, and lost in R1 six times. The Wimbledon archives show that he made R3 in doubles in 1976 (his main draw debut year, in which he also made R2 in singles), so it was the doubles PQF that he and Delaney made that year (Sashi's best performance). They picked up a huge scalp in R1 of doubles the next year, beating the top-seeds and defending champions, Raul Ramirez and Brian Gottfried! Here is Sashi's Wimbledon file:

http://www.wimbledon.com/en_GB/scores/d ... index.html
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Re: Sashi Menon thread

Post by PKBasu »

The ATP site now shows Sashi Menon's career-high ranking being 71 in October 1975. It shows him making the last-32 of the Australian Open in December 1974. Then he made the QF of the ATP Chicago (losing to #11 Roscoe Tanner, after beating #40 Charlie Pasarell in R1 and a Robert Kreiss in the last-16). Then he won 2 rounds at the ATP Louisville (beating #23 Gottfried in R1, and #77 in R2), beat Mike Cahill in Indianapolis, made R2 of the US Open (losing to Manuel Orantes on clay), R2 at the ATP Los Angeles (beat Pasarell again, then ranked 37), beat Dick Dell at the ATP San Francisco, won a round each on clay in Aviles and Madrid, so he definitely earned that career-high ranking of 71 through consistent performances on the ATP tour that year (winning a round or more in 9 ATP tournaments, including two Slams).
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Re: Sashi Menon thread

Post by jayakris »

Interesting that ATP corrected the data. How/why was it wrong before, I wonder... Those were the early days of computer ranking.
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Re: Sashi Menon thread

Post by rajitghosh »

jayakris wrote: Fri Jul 29, 2022 2:26 am Interesting that ATP corrected the data. How/why was it wrong before, I wonder... Those were the early days of computer ranking.
However they have revised Vijay down to 18 and credited Krishnan with the Canadian Open win in 1968 and Premjit Lall for reaching the Beckenham final in 1972.
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Re: Sashi Menon thread

Post by VReddy »

Pasting some articles on Shashi that I have come across as sometime these web pages get taken down over time

https://www.menonbrown.com/team/sashi-menon
Sashi Menon
President
(949) 661-2097
menonbrown@fscadvisor.com


Economics degree Pune University India 1969

Business degree USC 1974

President Menon/Brown Advisory Group - an Investment Advisory firm.

Has over 30 years of experience in various aspects of finance with experience as a Stockbroker, Investment Banker, Portfolio Manager and an Investment Advisor.

His career in Finance started in 1984 when he was hired by the investment firm Drexel Burnham Lambert in their Beverly Hills, Ca. office.

Along with a small group left Drexel Burnham in 1988 and joined Ladenburg Thalmann & Co where the group addressed trading, market making and investment banking needs of small companies.

Towards 1990 became more involved in Investment Banking and joined CBS a firm in Orange County, Ca. which provided the flexibility of both managing portfolios and pursuing investment banking opportunities. During this period put together projects such as opening a Bajaj Auto assembly and distribution network for Central America and the Caribbean.

In 2005 formed Menon/Brown Advisory Group, a Registered Investment Advisor.

This diverse experience in investments has shaped his philosophy which is - no one person can be an expert in the increasingly diverse skills from fundamental analysis to quant models and behavioral science needed to successfully manage investments in a globally interconnected market. Menon/Brown Advisory Group works with some of the leading institutional strategists and portfolio managers in creating custom investment solutions.

Prior to his career in Finance he was a Three Time All-American at USC, played on the Pro Tennis Tour for ten years and represented India in Davis Cup for sixteen years.
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