Mukund Sasikumar thread

[arjun2761]

Despite loss, some signs of improvement from Sasi...

[PKBasu]

Yes, a very close match against a former junior #1 and ATP #225 is heartening, although the opponent (who is 5 years older than Sasi) is now ranked close to Sasi. He should gradually move up toward 400 in the rankings by early next year.

[sameerph]

Sasi starts with an easy win in first round this week.

At $25K Nigeria F6 Futures, Lagos

[R1] (4) Sasi Kumar MUKUND (IND,557) d. Christopher BULUS (NGR,NR) 60 62

Meets another Nigerian next.

[R2] (4) Sasi Kumar MUKUND (IND,557) vs. Mohammed MOHAMMED (NGR,1752)

[sameerph]

Another easy win for Sasi.

At $25K Nigeria F6 Futures, Lagos

[R2] (4) Sasi Kumar MUKUND (IND,557) d. Mohammed MOHAMMED (NGR,1752) 62 60

Next,

[QF] (4) Sasi Kumar MUKUND (IND,557) vs. Moez ECHARGUI (TUN,1198)

Last week Sasi beat the same player in second round. Hopefully, the result will be same this week.

[Sin Hombre]

A win tomorrow and Sasi breaks into the top 500 for the first time in his career.

[Rajiv]

That’s a nice performance from Sasi and hope he can bag the title and earn valuable points.
These Nigerian Futures are somewhat neglected by our players as in a year they have atleast 3 editions and each one runs for 3-4 weeks offering lot of points(as they are min 25K) and in most of the cases with hospitality.

The major stumbling block which prevents I feel is the tedious visa issue as one needs to apply first and wait for 2-3 weeks to get an appointment and for someone in India he has to travel to Delhi , and also has to make sure after making an application he is going to remain in India for 3 weeks to go for the interview.

But still a proper planning can make it work as not only lot of points at stake but the level of competition is of a not a high standard and if a player has a good run for 2-3 weeks can easily garner 60-70 points.

[sameerph]

A win tomorrow and Sasi breaks into the top 500 for the first time in his career.

But, he suffers an upset loss today.

At $25K Nigeria F6 Futures, Lagos

[QF] (4) Sasi Kumar MUKUND (IND,557) l. Moez ECHARGUI (TUN,1198) 46 64 26

Oh, well. I was expecting him to go really deep this week. On to Pune challenger next week where most of our players are heading to.

[PKBasu]

Sasi beat the German, Sami Reinwein, in 3 sets to win the $15K Futures in Guwahati this week. Congrats to Sasi for winning his third Futures singles title!

[sameerph]

Sasi has been hovering about this ranking of 510-520 for about 4-5 months now on the verge of entering top 500 but just losing the key matches which could have taken him there. But, with his third futures title today in Gwalior, he will gain a total of 24 points ( 18 from this week and 6 from last week still to be updated) which will replace his last 2 points of 18 points tally.

This will give him a big jump in the rankings to around 440. He does not have too many points to defend until late in the year. So, he can move up inside 350 quickly with few more results like this week.

[PKBasu]

This title was in Guwahati (Assam); the women were playing in Gwalior (where Zeel won).
Next week is in Bhilai (where the Soviets helped us build a big steel plant).

[sameerph]

Yes of course it was in Guwahati. My mistake. The view outside the courts looked quite nice with some mountains around. Good to see couple of ITF futures being held in Assam. I am not sure if this is the first time.

[sameerph]

Sasi is playing in China for next couple of weeks but has a tough first round.

At $25K China F4 Futures, Luzhou

[R1] (5) Sasi Kumar MUKUND (IND,436) vs. Jimmy WANG (TPE,548)

Don't know how Jimmy Wang is now ranked so low but he is a very good player and will be a favourite against Sasi.

[arjun2761]

Perhaps age has caught up with 32 year old Jimmy Wang. He is 1-4 this year against top 500 opponents, so he is beatable by Sasi.

[sameerph]

But, Wang beat Sasi easily.

At $25K China F4 Futures, Luzhou

[R1] (5) Sasi Kumar MUKUND (IND,436) l. Jimmy WANG (TPE,548) 26 26

[sameerph]

Sasi has another tough match this week in first round.

At $25K China F4 Futures, Luzhou

[R1] (4) Sasi Kumar MUKUND (IND,436) vs. Yan BAI (CHN,579)