Mukund Sasikumar thread

[Dinesh]

Mukund won 7-6 6-4. Might run into Daniel Rodrigues again who’s currently 3-2 up in the third set in his QF match. Daniel is a recent college tennis graduate from Univ of South Carolina and was ranked as high as #3 in the ITA rankings.

[jayakris]

At M25 Sintra, Portugal, finally three okay wins! He seems to do the bare minimum to stay alive as Mukund, whenever I get ready to call him Sasi

[QF] (2) Sasikumar Mukund (IND,413) d. Adria Soriano Barrera (ESP,648), 76(6) 64
[SF] (2) Sasikumar Mukund (IND,413) vs Daniel Rodrigues (POR,823)

[suresh]

At M25 Sintra, Portugal, finally three okay wins! He seems to do the bare minimum to stay alive as Mukund, whenever I get ready to call him Sasi

Please keep threatening Mukund on a regular basis.

[jayakris]

^^ Haha, yeah

It seems there are live streams from the Sintra M25 at the ITF live streams page. The other SF is going on now, and in the third set at 1-1... Mukund's match should start at around 6 pm IST. Would be a good chance to see in what form our latest Davis Cup player is. Hope the elevation of status boosts his morale and he starts hitting a stride now.

[SF] (2) Sasikumar Mukund (IND,413) d. Daniel Rodrigues (POR,823), 61 75

Mukund got up to 4-0 in a jiffy, helped by a lot of mistakes from a super-excited opponent. Then he lost focus and made a bunch of mistakes to face BPs, and dropped serve after 3 deuces. Focus, dude, focus! ... And he broke DR again for 5-1 and served it off. Easy so far. 61 00 ... Broke DR once more, but lost focus immediately and started playing some loose/lazy shots to get broken back. 1-2 on serve... Was on danger of being broken again at 30-40 but steadied himself at the right time to come up with a good serve (an ace) and hold serve 61 22. DR keeps complaining about line calls he is not getting. Must be wondering where his home court advantage is! ... At 2-3 on his serve, SM tried an unnecessary serve and volley, and looked school-boyish in hitting a jammed forehand too long, where there was no reason for him to jam himself! But he followed that with an ace and a service winner (great job), to hold, 3-3... But I don't like how he is letting the other guy hang around... But no problem, as the other guy does not want to hang around anyway. He gifts a game to SM with more mistakes of his own, and Mukund is up 4-3 and serving. Loved a forehand passing shot winner he hit in the next game, as DR tried charging the net. Impressive, though DR held serve at 30 to stay alive a bit longer. Serving for the match at 5-4, Mukund was unnecessarily overdoing things in the next game. 15-40 after a stupid attempt at serve and volley (what is WRONG with our players with this mad S&V crap?) and a forehand that hit out 2 feet wide. He still saved two BPs though. But then he really choked on an overhead (of the kind where we can see he was going to choke as he was rushing into position - no doubt!) at AD out... Now it was 5-5 ... In my view (and I am always harsh on Mukund, for whatever reason), he simply choked and gave the game away when he should have been playing his normal game and finishing the match. If you keep bringing the other guy back into the match after he had given up, he will turn it around and beat you. Right now, I don't feel good about this match.... Well, what do I know? I overestimate the Portuguese who double-faulted once and couldn't handle the heat on a couple of forehands from Mukund. Another break!... 6-5 and serving. Now Mukund played tennis like he can. A calm straightforward hold with two rallies of over 12 shots each. DR can't stay with Mukund (which Mukund should have known all along!)... Easy game at 15, and it is a match. Great job, all said and done, in not letting himself lose focus for too long. He straightened himself 2 or 3 times in the second set, which was good to see.

[F] (2) Sasikumar Mukund (IND,413) vs Duarte Vale (POR,549), tomorrow!

[jayakris]

The final is on at the M25 in Sintra, Portugal.

Pretty even match in the first set, till the 7th game when Mukund broke him, helped by a very nice 19 shot rally. 5-3. Mukund's ground strokes have been very smooth today. He was unlucky to give the break back in the next game while serving for the set. A really good cross-court forehand sprayed just a centimeter out (maybe!) and then a very lucky net chord point for the other guy... It then went to a tiebreaker, where Mukund's real issue showed up. That is his extremely unsteady play at the net. The other guy was quite good with his volleys as he chip-charged on Mukund's serve and took control at the first point. Mukund did that perfectly well in the next point off DV's serve too, but totally muffed a volley with the whole court in front of him (he makes a lot of volley mistakes like that). But from 0-3, Mukund played his ground game and got back to even at 3-3. They traded minis, and then Mukund saved an SP to make it 6-6 (6-6)... At his own first set point, he took control of a 2nd serve from Vale, and finished a short rally with an inside out forehand to the right chalk! The best shot of the match so far, and that came at set point. Go Mukund!!

It was all calm in the second set till 2-3 when Mukund finally made a mistake on a shot during a rally (he makes very few of those), and then in the next point, moved up prematurely and muffed returning a short drop from Vale. A fairly poor serve followed and he was broken. 76 24... He had a chance at 15-30 in the next game to hit a volley and get two BPs but he simply doesn't seem to know how to stick a volley in with any punch, and he got easily lobbed over. Hasn't anybody coached Mukund how to hit a volley? It is horrible to see it happen so many times! DV made the one break stand up. All even. 67(6) 36 00

In the third set, Vale got impatient on some rallies and hit a couple of shots out to face triple BPs. At 30-40, Mukund finally did what I was asking for, which was to "stick the damn volley" if he was going to move up. Up a break 2-0... Alas, Mukund does the same frustrating thing the next game at deuce with a poor volley that even my grandmother can pick up and lob over him. Vale did. But I give credit to Mukund that he does not seem to let these things bother him and goes about playing the next point on its own merit. The calm demeanor helps him get into a couple of rallies and keep his focus. He held for 3-0 after a very long game. Seeing that Mukund was going to keep his steady ground game, really deflated Vale's spirit in the next game, as he got broken again. In the 5th game, VD took SM to a couple of deuces but this time Mukund decided to stick the half-volleys across the net instead of messing around with volleys. Why not? His ground game was totally on song and accurate today, after all. He probably hit the net just twice the whole match!... 5-0.... It was triple BP off Vale's serve soon, and (haha!) Mukund netted the first one, just as I talk about him not hitting the net today. Duarte played the next point well, but the writing was on the wall as SM converted the third match point for a bagel set and match.

[F] (2) Sasikumar Mukund (IND,413) d. Duarte Vale (POR,549) 76(6) 36 60

Congrats go to Mukund for celebrating his inclusion in the Davis Cup team with a very rare title on European soil. Vale Duarte is no pushover, by the way. Quite a talented player with a pretty good serve, very good athleticism and an all-round game. The 23 year old was #14 as a junior (we have not even had a top-25 junior player in ages!) and is mking a move up the ladder after the Covid delays. He made Mukund work hard for this win.

Alright, Mukund it is. Don't make me call you Sasi again any time soon. I think he should move up to around #375 or so when these points go in. The points weren't that substantial for him, but it is a notable title for sure.

[PKBasu]

Congrats to Mukund, and thanks to Jay for the detailed match report.
Slow and steady climb back to where he was pre-Covid.

[sameerph]

Great week for Mukund and his 2 wins in SF and F were quality wins against local quality players- former ITA #3 in SF and former ITF junior top 15. Mukund does come up with some such string of wins, He had one such streak at the start of the year where he reached the final of a challenger in Italy which yielded him 33 points and now this title which gives him 25 points. In between he went for long periods with one win here and there, but these 2 weeks have ensured that he will be still inside top 400 and will hopefully, have few more such weeks before the end of the year and he will get back his earlier top 250 level which will enable him to play at challengers regularly.

[suresh]

Congratulations to Mukund. I saw one game in the second set and Mukund got broken. I decided to stop watching.

[sameerph]

Mukund is playing in a US challenger this week and has made the cut for main draw this week.

At Columbus Challenger, Ohio, USA

[R1 Sasikumar Mukund (IND,378) vs. Nicolas Mejia (COL,280)

Mejia beat Mukund easily in 2021 in straight sets. But, hope Mukund turns up this time (and not Sasi ) and turns the tables.

[Dinesh]

Mukund just took the first set 6-4 against Mejia. The Colombian must have said something to Mukund during one of the line calls, which invoked the umpire to warn him not to talk to Mukund like that. Glad our guy kept his cool and took care of business, so far. One more set, please!

He’s done it Mejia took a MTO right when he was leading 4-3, but Mukund kept his focus and held his service games twice and broke him once to finish it 6-4 6-4.

Live ranking at #370. Plays top seed Jordan Thompson next in R2.

[arjun2761]

Wow, great win by Mukund who slowly emerging as one of our top singles players. Hope to see him play Jordan Thompson (#98) close....

[Dinesh]

Match is on serve now, with Mukund serving at 3-4. He had just broken Jordan when I started watching.

[sameerph]

Mukund lost 36 36. Jordan Thompson proved too good for him.

[jayakris]

Mukund is in the singles qualies at the Challenger 80 in Gwangju, S. Korea. Seeded second with a bye. Awaiting the winner of Kuan Yu Chen (TPE) vs Ji Hoon Son (KOR) in the final qualifying round. If he makes the main draw, maybe we should have a Gwangju thread, as YukiSaki are in the doubles main draw there.

[jayakris]

At the Challenger 80 in Gwangju, S. Korea (hard)

[Q1] (2) Mukund Sasukumar (IND,370) BYE
[Q2] (2) Mukund Sasukumar (IND,370) vs (12) Ji Hoon Son (KOR,1006), Monday 11 am (7:30 am IST)