Mukund Sasikumar thread

[sameerph]

Yes, looks like he is injured, played only 1 tournament since India challengers in early March and than not played anywhere. As of now, he is in the entry list of M25 in Bataou, China in May 5 week. But, he has been entering and withdrawing from tournaments. So, let us see if he is ready to play in couple of weeks.

[sameerph]

Mukund restarts this week with M25 after almost 2 months break.

At ITF M25 Baotou.China (Clay)

[R1] (3) Sasikumar Mukund (IND,456) vs. Yuichiro Inui (JPN,1301)

[sameerph]

Mukund starts with an easy win.

At ITF M25 Baotou.China (Clay)

[R1] (3) Sasikumar Mukund (IND,456) d. Yuichiro Inui (JPN,1301) 60 retd.

Next,

[R2] (3) Sasikumar Mukund (IND,456) vs. Sungbeen Sim (KOR,1060)

[PKBasu]

Mukund through to the QF at the China M25 on clay:

[R2] 3-Sasikumar Mukund (IND,456) d. Seongbin Sim (KOR,1060) 63 63

[sameerph]

Mukund plays Chinese 8th seed next.

At ITF M25 Baotou.China (Clay)

[QF] (3) Sasikumar Mukund (IND,456) vs. (8) Tianhui Zhang (CHN,700)

[sameerph]

Mukund thru to SF with another straight sets win.

At ITF M25 Baotou.China (Clay)

[QF] (3) Sasikumar Mukund (IND,456) d. (8) Tianhui Zhang (CHN,700) 76(3) 64

So, he has justified his seeding now. Tough one next up.

[SF] (3) Sasikumar Mukund (IND,456) vs. (1) Yan Bai (CHN,248)

Mukund is 0-5 against Yan Bai in head to head.

[arjun2761]

Time for Mukund to turn the tide against his 35 year old opponent! However, Yan Bai is playing some of his best tennis right now having won 7 titles in the last 2 years at the M25/15 level including winning his previous tournament. These results are better than his results at his age prime.

[PKBasu]

Actually Yan Bai lost in Q2 of his last tournament (Gwangju Challenger) and Q1 of the one before that (Busan Challenger). But he lost the final of the Shenzhen M25 in March, and won the M15 in Maanshan (China) in early-March. I have a feeling that Mukund will avenge his past losses to Yan Bai this time.

[arjun2761]

^^^^i don’t think the above is accurate. Yan Bai is on an 8 match win streak winning the M25 Anning on May 4 which is his previous event. He did give a walkover at Gwangju Q2 but that was earlier on April 21. Mukund is playing an aging but red hot player.

[sameerph]

Another loss for Mukund against Yan Bai

At ITF M25 Baotou.China (Clay)

[SF] (3) Sasikumar Mukund (IND,456) l. (1) Yan Bai (CHN,248) 46 36

Anyway, decent performance by Mukund in first tournament back after some time.

8 points ( and net 4 points) will take him to 102 points and he will wrest back India #2 spot from Aryan Shah in May 19 rankings.