Mukund Sasikumar thread

[sameerph]

Mukund is playing singles qualifying at Hamburg Challenger this week and had a decent win in Q1.

At Hamburg Challenger 50 , Germany (Hard)

[Q1] (13) Sasikumar Mukund (IND,447) d. Edas Butvilas (LTU,524) 63 67(4) 61

Next,

[Q2] (13) Sasikumar Mukund (IND,447) vs. Max Hans Reheberg (GER,601)

[sameerph]

Mukund qualified for main draw with a hard fought win.

At Hamburg Challenger 50 , Germany (Hard)


[Q2] (13) Sasikumar Mukund (IND,447) d. Max Hans Reheberg (GER,601) 67(9) 61 75

So, in main draw,

[R1] (Q) Sasikumar Mukund (IND,447) vs. Altug Celikbilek (TUR,295)

These 2 have played 4 times before and Altug has won thrice but Mukund won the latest match in July at Newport.

[sameerph]

Mukund lost in straight sets.

At Hamburg Challenger 50 , Germany (Hard)

[R1] (Q) Sasikumar Mukund (IND,447) l. Altug Celikbilek (TUR,295) 57 67(3)

[jayakris]

Mukund was at the M15 in Sharm Elk Shaikh, Egypt (Hard) but got upset in a very poor match...

[R1] (2) Sasikumar Mukund (IND,426) l. Petr Bar Biryukov (RUS,792), 36 16

He just cannot seem to ever get into a groove long enough. Maybe he is still injured or ill? He was ill or injured when he gave a walkover at the Pune M100 quarterfinal after 2 good straight-sets wins over top-150 and top-250 players (Federico Gaio and Felix Gill) two weeks ago; but he had a 3-set R1 loss last week at the Delhi M75 against the eventual runner-up Coleman Wong, so it probably isn't an injury... Maybe focusing on the job day after day and week after week is tough for him. Just cannot say when/where he would do well

[jayakris]

Since Mukund's name is properly listed now, officially in ATP/ITF draws (as of last month, I believe), I have changed the name of the thread from "Sasi Kumar Mukund" to "Mukund Sasikumar" .... Mod, Jay

By the way, sometime after that, ITF again started listing him as "Sasikumar Mukund" in the draws. ATP still lists him as "Mukund Sasikumar".

I guess even ATP and ITF are unsure which version of him will show up any day!

[sameerph]

Looks like he is not able to motivate himself for these lower level events. I do not really understand why he went down there for just 1 week. Next week there is a M25 in New Delhi. Mukund is surprisingly not in the entry list there but is in the entry list for M15 in Chandigarh the week after. Maybe he will take wild card for New Delhi .

[prasen9]

I guess even ATP and ITF are unsure which version of him will show up any day!

I think the culprit is quantum mechanics. Same thing happened to Schrodinger's cat. Well, of course, Schrodinger was wrong. So, either the ATP or ITF are wrong. We don't know which. If we try to find out, we will get a random answer depending upon which side of the bed you woke up that day morning. If you don't remember which side, you won't know what his name is for that day.

[jayakris]

^^^ Haha... The problem is that Mukund also does not remember when he wakes up who he is.

[jayakris]

Mukund is at the M125 in Busan, S.Korea (Hard) qualies.

[Q1] Mukund Sasikumar (IND,446) vs (9) Blake Ellis (AUS,382), Sunday

[jayakris]

M125 in Busan, S.Korea (Hard)

[Q1] Mukund Sasikumar (IND,446) l. (9) Blake Ellis (AUS,382), 75 36 36

Very inconsistent game from Mukund today. Was up a break twice to 4-2 and 5-3 but and got broken back both times... At 6-5, he broke Blake and took the set. After that it was all downhill, as he was unable to do anything with so many breakpoints he created. Any sort of decent or even weak serve to his backhand side was enough to save a BP, which Ellis figured out after the first set. He went 0 for 6 at BPs in three different games in the second and third set, and Ellis, who was no great shakes at converting BPs either, took care of business doing just the minimum. Mukund continues to be unable to strike any kind of rhythm in his game.

[sameerph]

Mukund again lost in first round of qualifying.

At Gwangju Challenger 75, Korea (Hard)

[Q1] Mukund Sasikumar (IND,452) l. (6) Rio Noguchi (JPN,343) 46 46

[jayakris]

Mukund made the Qualifying draw at the Challenger 75 in Shenzen, China (Hard) as an ALT. He had finished 4th out from the main draw list.

[Q1] (ALT) Mukund Sasikumar (IND,448) vs (WC) Linang Xiao (CHN,723)

As he took the top qualifying seed's spot, it is not a bad draw. Will play 8th seed #359 Majchrzak or another ALT #401 Celikbilek in the final qualifying round next, if he can advance today.

[sameerph]

He lost in Q1.

At Challenger 75 in Shenzen, China (Hard)

[Q1] (ALT) Mukund Sasikumar (IND,448) l. (WC) Linang Xiao (CHN,723) 75 46 46

[jayakris]

Mukund is in a funk. Pretty clear to me that it is all a mental issue. He has the game, at a topnotch top-200 level, and we can clearly see it at various points in any match he plays. He just does not have the winner's instincts anymore and seems to make a while lot of poor shot selections and mistakes these days.