Mukund Sasikumar thread

[Rajiv]

First set to Mukund against the 'Subject" Wishaya @3, hope he finishes in straight sets to grab a much needed title.

[jayakris]

Oh, I didn't know that ITF had a livestream for the final. I don't think they had livestream for earlier rounds. They had streams only for the the women's W15 there; not for men, which was weird. Or maybe it was only from some courts. Had I known, I would have got up earlier to watch this. Link: https://live.itftennis.com/en/live-stre ... d=51157351

It is at 63 22 now.

A bullet cross-court forehand on a hard shot off a semi-overhead kill from Wishaya that came to the right spot for Mukund made it an AD out BP at 3-3 and Wishaya hit a forehand out wide right. Break up to 63 43... At 5-4, a service winner and then a really good reflex volley at the net on a hard passing shot from Wijaya helped Mukund get his first match point at 40-30. An untimely double fault made it deuce but Mukund closed it out soon with a deep forehand to the right back corner at Ad in. Congratulations, Mukund!!

At the ITF M15 in Tianjin, CHN (Hard):

[F] (1) Mukund Sasikumar (IND,479) d. (7) Wishaya Trongcharoenchaikul (THA,734), 63 64

And that is two titles in two finals so far for us. Okay, 3 in 3 this weekend, if you want to include other sports where guys swat balls into the air, run out of the field and then come back in to catch them.

[Rajiv]

Mukund overcomes the Subject 3 & 4 :to take home the title

[PKBasu]

Mukund has been in wretched form this year, so I don't mind him going all the way down to the M15 level to pick up some points and confidence. Wishaya Trongcharoenchaikul is a solid player, who was ranked 395 in 2018, so the final wasn't a gimme. Mukund did well to win it in straight sets. (The Thai player must be of Chinese descent, as so many are in Thailand -- including almost all Prime Ministers they have had in the past century; a very long name like this is usually a sign of Chinese descent, with Chai probably the original surname -- kul of course means family/clan).

[jayakris]

^^ Not sure if he is of Chinese decent. The first name "Wishaya" is clearly of sanskrit origin, which is rare for Chinese descent people to pick as a first name, isn't it?

[jayakris]

For the record,

At the ITF M15 in Tianjin, CHN (Hard)

[R1] (1) Mukund Sasikumar (IND,479) d. Bang Shuo Yin (TPE,817), 62 62
[R2] (1) Mukund Sasikumar (IND,479) d. (WC) Linghao Zhang (CHN,1298), 63 64
[QF] (1) Mukund Sasikumar (IND,479) d. (6) Tsung-Hao Huang (TPE,649), 61 46 76(5)
[SF] (1) Mukund Sasikumar (IND,479) d. (Q) Zhenxiong Dong (CHN,1313), 75 62
[F] (1) Mukund Sasikumar (IND,479) d. (7) Wishaya Trongcharoenchaikul (THA,734), 63 64

[PKBasu]

^^ Not sure if he is of Chinese decent. The first name "Wishaya" is clearly of sanskrit origin, which is rare for Chinese descent people to pick as a first name, isn't it?

In Thailand, all citizens have been obliged since around 1910 (King Rama VI's or Vajiravudh's time) to have Thai names -- which, by definition, are of Sanskrit origin. Long surnames typically suggest Chinese heritage (especially if they incorporate a Chinese surname within them: "chai" family is a dead give-away to me). Vajiravudh was a Sanskrit scholar and accomplished writer of plays, poems and short stories -- including many that retold stories from the Ramayana and Mahabharata (both of which he knew intimately, being fluent in Sanskrit). He also translated at least 3 of Shakespeare's plays into Thai.

[jayakris]

^^^ Ah, thanks. That makes sense and explains to me why the Thais never seem to have Chinese names, unlike elsewhere in Asia. This guy's pictures seem to indicate a Tibetan Chinese look actually.

[Rajiv]

Mukund stays in Tianjin for the second M15 where he is the 2nd seed.

Now he is playing a 2000+ ranked Chinese qualifier in R1 and it is 2 -1 to Mukund on serve.

The match is available on the live stream

https://live.itftennis.com/en/live-stre ... d=51226467

[jayakris]

He is in Darth Vader mood today. Dark colors. 63 00 he is up

[jayakris]

At the M15 in Tianjin, China (Hard):

[R1] (2) Mukund Sasikumar (IND,476) d. (Q) Xiaoyin Yang (CHN,ITF-1498), 63 64

[prasen9]

^^^ Ah, thanks. That makes sense and explains to me why the Thais never seem to have Chinese names, unlike elsewhere in Asia. This guy's pictures seem to indicate a Tibetan Chinese look actually.

So, is Somdev of Chinese descent? From Tripura, parts of Assam and north and east, Chattogram and beyond in Bangladesh people have East Asian features. And you can see, how in Chatgna, the people look mixed and as you go east there are more and more visible East Asian features ... All Thais I know have Chinese-type or Tibetan features. I can differentiate between a Myanmari person and a Tibetan person or a Chinese person from a Vietnamese person a bit by their skin color and some features seem a bit mixed. But, looking at the guy's photos, I do not know why we think he is Chinese and/or Tibetan or whatever. He seems just standard Thai to me. Thai DNA is a mix of Chinese and some Indian DNA, some original people's DNA from these parts of the world, etc. I am curious as to why we are discussing this. And, also how people can figure out from the face what their descent is. I have not lived there (Southeast Asia) as PKB has and when one lives somewhere one can tell the difference between smaller regions wrt looks - although a bit of it also comes from people's mannerisms. I used to be able to maybe say with 80% accuracy a Bengali from what we called non-Bengali people even without hearing someone. So, maybe you can say that this guy is of Chinese descent.

Wrt the name, PKB is correct. He has Chinese blood. But, the name only traces back to the paternal line (father's father's father's ...) and only captures maybe 1% of your DNA. They say ancestral DNA, you get from about 10 of your great-grandparents and the rest and beyond that is lost randomly. So, he may have had some Chinese connection at some point of time but may actually be something else from a whole lot of his other great-grandparents and ancestors ... 1912 is maybe many generations ago ... so it is possible he is minimally Chinese.

He is Thai.

[PKBasu]

Of course he is Thai now, and like all people of Chinese descent in Thailand, has been forced to assimilate. He probably has a lot of proper Thai blood from a few generations on the maternal side. All I said is that the surname suggests Chinese descent -- and most Thais will be able to tell that as well. Almost all prime ministers of Thailand in the past 90 years have been of Chinese descent -- some with names that disguised this fact. The astonishing thing about South-east Asia is that all the main cities -- Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Singapore, Manila, Jakarta, Medan -- have ethnic-Chinese majorities, so the business elites across the region are ethnic Chinese, all a result of the economic decline of China during the final century of Manchu rule as European imperialism closed in on the Manchu (a Turkic Buddhist people who had ruled China since 1644).

(Ironically, the exception was Rangoon/Yangon, which had an Indian majority until the 1930s -- and, in fact, a Bengali plurality, followed by Tamils. The British divide and rule approach set to work, and the Bamars were made to hate the Indians, especially after 1937, when a port strike -- by Indian dockworkers -- was broken by bringing in Burmese to work the ports, and deliberately setting off anti-Indian pogroms. Interestingly, the first election in Burma was fought on the single issue of whether Burma should remain a part of British India. The party led by Ba Maw favoured remaining part of India, and won a landslide victory. But in 1935-36, Burma was nonetheless separated from India; the 1937 election was again won by Ba Maw in a landslide, and he was jailed by the British in early-1939, around the time Subhas Bose was ousted by Gandhi as Congress president; Ba Maw and Bose were close allies during WWII).

[PKBasu]

^^^ Ah, thanks. That makes sense and explains to me why the Thais never seem to have Chinese names, unlike elsewhere in Asia. This guy's pictures seem to indicate a Tibetan Chinese look actually.

During the Suharto era, Indonesian Chinese were also obliged to take "Indonesian" names. So two of the leading tycoons of that time were called Sudono Salim and Mohamad 'Bob' Hasan. (Their original names were Lim Sioe Liong and The Kiang Seng). The latter was adopted by a general called Gatot Soebroto (Subroto written in the Dutch way). Gatot is the short-form of Ghatotkach (the son of Bhima and Hidimba from the Mahabharata), one of the most popular names in Indonesia (particularly Java). In Bali, as you leave the main airport (in Denpasar), the first round-about has a huge statue of Ghatotkacha -- and is called "Ghatotkach Sarai".

[Rajiv]

Next up for Mukund in R2 is the Taiwanese dbls specialist Ray Ho, could be a tricky match despite his low ranking in singles.