Mukund Sasikumar thread

[jayakris]

Yeah, this loss may have more to do with jetlag than anything else! Maybe he is planning to do winter conditioning in Europe? If so, it is not a wasted trip. He is still with coach Martin Spoettl in Vienna, right?

[sameerph]

I think so. But he is a reserve for david cup tie. So, i suppose he will travel there and also im entry list of AO asia pacific wild card playoff in China week after that.

[jaydeep]

He is playing the doubles with VSP and they r facing the 3rd seeds.

At €46.6K+H Maia Challenger 2019, Portugal

[R1] Sasikumar Mukund (IND)/ N Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND) vs (3) Luca Margaroli (SUI)/ Andrea Vavassori (ITA)

[jayakris]

The ATP year is not quite done for Indians, as Mukund and VSP pulled off a comeback upset just now. After being totally out of sorts in the first set, which wasn't surprising considering the rust in doubles, they had a break at the right time in the second set on their second BP from 30-40 at 5-4. Then in the STB, they were down a minibreak at 2-4, came back and were up a mini at 8-7, but then faced a match point on the Europeans' serve at 8-9... A fantabulistic service return from Mukund (man, the guy can return!) that fell just inside the net at the opponent's feet, saved the MP. Then, a heated backhand cross court from Mukund at 10-9 at their first MP evoked only a wild hit in response, and our guys moved on to live another day. The match to determine their QF opponents is just starting.

At €46.6K+H Maia Challenger 2019, Portugal

[R1] Sasikumar Mukund (IND)/ N Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND) d. (3) Luca Margaroli (SUI)/ Andrea Vavassori (ITA), 06 64 [11-9]

[jayakris]

By the way, I hadn't noticed that Mukund had played doubles at only 2 challengers this year! I knew that he was hardly playing doubles and focusing on singles (he seems like quite a focused individual by the way), but thought he had played at least a few... But he only played the Asthana (now called Noor-Sultan) challenger in July where he lost in the first round, and then the Batou challenger in August. There he went to the finals with Gabashvili (while reaching the singles finals also). So, those 48 points from Batou are all he has in doubles, and now he has picked up 15 more points to move up some 110 spots from his current ranking of 676... This is a nice week to pick up some doubles points with VSP. Hope they make a run here.

[jayakris]

At €46.6K+H Maia Challenger 2019, Portugal

[QF] Sasikumar Mukund (IND)/ N Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND) vs (WC) Tiago Cacao (POR)/ Joao Monteiro (POR)

[sameerph]

This is a nice article on ITD of Mukund-

“If I am injury-free, I should be knocking at ATP Top 100 soon” – Mukund Sasikumar

[jayakris]

At €46.6K+H Maia Challenger 2019, Portugal

[QF] Sasikumar Mukund (IND)/ N Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND) d. (WC) Tiago Cacao (POR)/ Joao Monteiro (POR), 76(6) 64

Our guys were up a break at 5-3, but got broken twice to 5-6 and had to break again (how else, but a screaming service return winner down the line at 40-40 from Mukund?)... The TB was close but yet again, a cross-crourt service return from Mukund was untouchable at 7-6 and our guys took the set. More of the same in the second set. Trade of breaks but our guys came through in the end. So the ATP season continues for us!

[SF] Sasikumar Mukund (IND)/ N Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND) vs Andre Begeman (GER)/ Daniel Masur (GER)

[knarayen]

This is a nice article on ITD of Mukund-

“If I am injury-free, I should be knocking at ATP Top 100 soon” – Mukund Sasikumar

Insightful interview - thanks Vatsal!! This brings back some memories - one forgets the emotional ups and downs over time, but Mukund is living it every day. His coach is pushing him hard and even subsidizing his expenses partially - hats off to him! If I can reach out to his coach maybe I can partially reimburse the coach. Vatsal do we have the coach contact?

No question Mukund can benefit from mental toughness training. Losing close friends is hard to bear especially a girlfriend in the middle of tough competition. I know all about that - I can laugh about it now but not funny when you are young and in the middle of it.

Best wishes to Mukund on his breakthrough!!

Prof

[Varma]

Nice interview, Vatsal. He sounds a lot more philosophical for his age. Maybe it's the timing of the interview? Anyway, I am hoping that his upward swing continues into 2020 and that he gets to debut into one of the grandslam main draws.

- Varma

[jayakris]

Nice interview, Vatsal. He sounds a lot more philosophical for his age. Maybe it's the timing of the interview? Anyway, I am hoping that his upward swing continues into 2020 and that he gets to debut into one of the grandslam main draws.

The dude is actually a very intelligent guy. Son of an IAS officer, IIRC. Anyway, he was bright enough to finish high school a year or two deliberately early, just so he could focus on tennis. Such an unusual story for Indian kids/parents. Mukund always sounds cerebral in his interviews.

It was also very nice to see all the friendship between the Indian players.

By the way, it is such great work that Vatsal does. Hope he gets back here for a comment or two when he gets time!

[jayakris]

At €46.6K+H Maia Challenger 2019, Portugal

[SF] Sasikumar Mukund (IND)/ N Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND) l. Andre Begeman (GER)/ Daniel Masur (GER), 76(3) 36 [9-11]

No break points at all to our guys in the first set, though our guys had to save 4 BPs in games 8, 10 and 12. Then it was all Mukund in the TB, as a forehand return winner and a couple of backhand heated missiles did the job. VSP is doing his job, though nothing spectacular.

SM/NVSP were up a break at 2-1 in the second as they converted their first BP of the match at 15-40, but an untimely DF by VSP at 30-30 caused two BPs... At deuce, our guys dropped serve for the first time, after having saved the first 5 BPs on them. 2-2. Couldn't see the next 4 games but VSP dropped serve in the 8th game again, 3-5. The Germans held and it is an STB.

In the STB, a terrific inside out FH winner and then a baseline exchange between him and both the other guys near the net, got our guys two mini-breaks to run up to 5-1, but after some good work by the Germans and a DF by Mukund, it was even at 5-4. One more trade of minis; 6-6.. 7-7. Some nice work by VSP moving around, for another mini. 8-7. Our guys had an MP at 9-7 but Masur hit a nice angled volley to save it. At 9-10 on the first MP on our guys, VSP's second serve was a bit weak and he was a bit slow in getting to a deft drop volley. That ends the ATP season for us!

But another nice doubles run by Mukund. He played doubles only at 3 challengers this year, but reached a final and an SF in the last two, to earn himself a career-high doubles ranking right outside 500, just from two events' points. Not bad at all. He is a tremendous AD court player though. I see a lot of Mahesh Bhupathi tools in him, on groundies and returns (though I haven't seen enough to comment on the net skills).

[RohitG]

What is Mukund's schedule like for Jan-Feb?

[sameerph]

He has entered Bendigo Challenger for next week as of now. But,remains to be seen if he will go all the way to Australia just for 1 week. Maybe he will play Burnie and Laucheston Challenger after a week's break. But, Pune ATP is in the same week of Laucheston Challenger followed by Bengaluru Challenger the week after.

First couple of months are pretty tough for players ranked below 250 to get into.

[sameerph]

Mukund his stats his 2020 in Australia but has got a bad draw.

At $54K(+H) Bendigo Challenger, Australia

[R1] (11) Sasikumar Mukund (IND,272) bye

[R2] (11) Sasikumar Mukund (IND,272) vs. (Q) Yoshihito Nishioka (JPN,71)

Nishioka did not enter in first place for this tournament. So, had to go thru qualies and was therefore, not seeded for main draw. If he would have been in the original entry list, Nishioka would have been the second seed and would not have met Mukund in second round. So, bad luck for Mukund to be running into him in his first match.