The Sports-India Community

Opening a thread for promising 18 year old Sasi Kumar Mukund who won his first futures title today at Harvest Tennis acadamy in Jassowal.

A futures title at 18 years is indeed a notable achievement particularly in Indian context. The other ones who won the futures title at young age were Sanam Singh who won it just before he turned 18, RamKumar who won it just after his 19th birthday and of course, Yuki Bhambri who it when he only 16+.

Admittedly,this was one of the weakest field one would come across at futures level and Sasi only had to beat Indians and that too ranked lower than him. So, he will need to win another one in a more competitive field to be talked about in same breadth as those above in terms of talent level.

Anyway, Sasi is supported well by TNTA and he trains in Sanchez Casal acadamy in Spain where RamK too honed his skills. He also is showing the same approach shown by RamK, not playing much in juniors and concentrating on pro tour.

Hope he has more success on pro tour soon.

Btw, with 23 points from last 3 weeks futures yet to be updated (net of 1 point which he will lose from last year), he will get to 49 points a week from now and into top 600 and in the Indian top 10.

To me Sasi is still one of many women's tennis players in India who have won Futures but still have long way to go to be labelled as a potential. His basics look sound and he has financial and technical backing to make it big. Here is hoping for a brighter future

Omkara wrote:To me Sasi is still one of many women's tennis players in India who have won Futures but still have long way to go to be labelled as a potential. His basics look sound and he has financial and technical backing to make it big. Here is hoping for a brighter future

I thought Sasi is a man.

I think omkara was merely trying to draw an analogy between sasi and the women's tennis players that's all.

Tolamu you have caught the error very well and I am certain you knew what Ravindra said is what I meant. Just to add to it Sasi is also a girls name in India.

sameerph wrote:
A futures title at 18 years is indeed a notable achievement particularly in Indian context. The other ones who won the futures title at young age were Sanam Singh who won it just before he turned 18, RamKumar who won it just after his 19th birthday and of course, Yuki Bhambri who it when he only 16+.

Somdev also won a futures title as a teenager before he went to college.

Yep, he won it in 2004 when he was just past 19, the same age when RamK won his first. The ones younger to win titles were Sanam and Yuki.Yuki is one of few in the world to have won more than 1 title before his 17th birthday.

All the 4 who had won their titles this early have gone on to become very good players although Sanam 's progress has been slow due to issues in scheduling and fitness.

So, there is lot of hope from Sasi but with a caveat that his title run has been against weakest field among those discussed above. We will have to observe his performances in next 6-8 months to see if he gives similar ones against a tougher field.

Hearty congratulations to Mukund! This is quite a landmark to achieve so early. He somehow reminds me of Chetan Baboor , ex TT star. Both have exceptional sporting acumen, always achieve beyond expectations , highly talented , don't have a purist style of play.. a bit nonchallant and laid back style, don't look athletic but last long matches very well thanks to their game style,...also their personality off court.... very similar

atb Mukund , I'm sure you will go on to bring laurels to our country.

Sasi has moved to a career high ranking of 607 and ranked 10th among Indian players now. He seems to be taking a break this week but will play next 2 week's futures in Hyderabad.

Btw, Sasi is still eligible to play juniors this year and with his improved ranking can get into main draw at the US open juniors. I hope he is aware of it and if not someone who is in touch with him can alert him on this. It will be a good exposure to play at least 1 junior slam for him .

Does anyone on the forum have a direct contact with Sasi or his team? can he be coaxed into participating the USO Jr. Slam later this year? Since his ATP rank is better than 750, he can get into the main draw and this will be his last chance...

http://www.itftennis.com/media/194281/194281.pdf - Rule 46 on Pg. 15

Note: I checked, but didn't find him on facebook or twitter...

I think he is on Facebook. Try SK Mukund. One of us can send a message.

sameerph wrote:I think he is on Facebook. Try SK Mukund. One of us can send a message.

Thanks, found him here and sent this message.....

He is aged 21 if that is his facebook account. uh oh.

Wow! Didn't notice that... A lot of other tennis players were in this profile's friends list though....