Mukund Sasikumar thread

[jayakris]

I suspect finals will be a another easy game. If he maintains his cool

No, I am expecting a loss in the final. That junior exempt player seems to be very good and seems to be at least top-400 quality. Unless the top-300 Mukund shows up (and not the top-800 Sasi), this could be a loss. I am not sure if "Mukund" is there. "Sasi" also would also have won these matches, so I can't say

[Atithee]

If he can’t even win this one, what’s the point beating up on 1000+ ranked players. When our players have such a mismatched players in any tournament, we question what are the highly ranked players doing there. Need to be fair.

[jayakris]

^^ Well, he hasn't lost yet! If "Mukund" shows up, he will win. Let us hope for that

[Atithee]

He’d better! I’m not expecting a loss. The excuse brigade seems to be priming the pump.

[Omkara]

He’d better! I’m not expecting a loss. The excuse brigade seems to be priming the pump.

So true. Enough of excuses. The game is tough. It has toughened a lot more of late. COVID played a spoiler. Weakened our already weak support system. But what can we do.

Our players are either past their peak or not that worthy enough. So to prove your worth, win the final mukund!!!

[Rajiv]

So normalcy resorted.. and a straight sets loss 2 & 4 to a 1139 ranked oponent without even a semblance of a fight.
And Mukund is our Indian # 1...

[jayakris]

So only Sasi showed up today. That 18-year old junior exempt Martyn Pawelski must be very talented and playing very well. He is quite probably playing at a top-250 level already to get this kind of straight set scorelines in every match. He had beaten the second seeded Italian (#432 but inside top-400 recently) by a 62 61 score too -- so at least our man did better than the second seed. I think this loss may not look so bad later once Pawelski's ranking goes up, but we still have no idea if the top-300 Mukund is back or when he will be back. It has been generally Sasi late in the year.

[Omkara]

First of all no excuses.
Secondly, he neither deserves India's no 1 award not is he top 400. Except that one challenger her hes done nothing much.
Hence, our singles remains shit, with Karman as only hope.

[Atithee]

And can we please stop this Sasi Mukund stuff while we are at it? It has run its course.

[jayakris]

^^^ Sure. It has indeed run its course. But Mukund is not playing like he was playing 3 years ago when he reached #229 at age 22. That was no fluke. He was playing at another level. Not seeing that later was basically why I started calling him Sasi. That level of Mukund hasn't been seen in a while. He is not old enough for that kind of ability to disappear like this. I still have hope that he will get that form back. We will see...

[jayakris]

Mukund has made the entry for the Challenger 75 at Nonthaburi next week. He was 3 out initially, but has gone in now. Prajnesh was 5th out and is next in as of now. We will start a tournament thread if he also makes it in.

[sameerph]

Dinesh has already started a thread for Asian challengers

Asian Challengers thread

So, we can discuss there. Arjun Kadhe with Romboli and pair of Aniruddh/VSP are in doubles entry list and may be some more pairs may sign in onsite.

But about Mukund I had posted in that thread that he had also signed up for Doha M15 next week. Now he is shown as late withdrawal from main draw there. Usually, one is not allowed to withdraw late from one tournament and play in another one. I do not know if there are any exceptions allowed to it. Have not seen any before. So, if they follow those, Mukund will be taken out from Nothanburi Challenger next week. Lets see.

[Rajiv]

Usually, one is not allowed to withdraw late from one tournament and play in another one. I do not know if there are any exceptions allowed to it. Have not seen any before. So, if they follow those, Mukund will be taken out from Nothanburi Challenger next week. Lets see.

In a single year a player is allowed 3 last minute withdrawal, once a player has exceeded the limit he is not allowed any more withdrawal after the deadline and is penalized and fined.
So what Mukund has done is he has used up one of his 3 available withdrawals quota.

[sameerph]

Usually, one is not allowed to withdraw late from one tournament and play in another one. I do not know if there are any exceptions allowed to it. Have not seen any before. So, if they follow those, Mukund will be taken out from Nothanburi Challenger next week. Lets see.

In a single year a player is allowed 3 last minute withdrawal, once a player has exceeded the limit he is not allowed any more withdrawal after the deadline and is penalized and fined.
So what Mukund has done is he has used up one of his 3 available withdrawals quota.

You are right about fine and penalty. There are 3 exceptions provided for avoiding that. But, as far as I know a player cannot play another tournament in that week where he withdraws late from a tournament although his fine is waived off . I have not seen exceptions for this earlier.

[jayakris]

^^^ I think Sameer was not wondering about that. The question was if such a withdrawal is allowed from an ITF event, for the reason of making an entry to a challenger. I don't think it is. Once he saw that he was not in the challenger entry and entered an ITF event, he would be an automatic withdrawal from the challenger. I am not sure who needs to tell ATP about the ITF entry, and when, so that ATP can scratch his name from the challengers where he was in the waiting list. I think Mukund has the responsibility to tell ATP, at least by the time the qualifying draw is made, though ITF may have a mechanism to let ATP know too. In either case, he cannot withdraw from the ITF event and play the ATP challenger. So his name should drop out of the challenger. Since he has withdrawn from the ITF, he is not playing there either. My guess is that he won't be playing next week. In that case it is nothing but a screwup on his part, unless I am missing something. I may be wrong...

[Sameer posted above just as I was typing that ]