Mukund Sasikumar thread

[sameerph]

That fact that he lost in early in most of those weeks made it easy for him and he does not have to travel anywhere. All in just 1 place. Still, he would have found it difficult if he had gone deep each weeks as his ranking warrented.

Now, he continues for ninth consecutive but in a different city ( Cairo) and on a different surface ( clay).

[prasen9]

And Sharm El Sheikh is a beautiful place. I would love to stay there for eight weeks. Hotels were cheap when we went there because people were afraid of terrorism after the plane got blown up. Maybe now he has a nice gig where he is staying at a (relatively) nice place for cheap and has access to training courts, etc.

Cairo is not far off. So, continuing there is fine if your body is well rested due to those weeks where he was one and done.

[sameerph]

True, this is good for him. In the current scenerio of lower number of challengers mainy in Europe, he would have struggled to make even qualifying draws at challenger level. So, better to play here rather than going from place to place in Europe waiting to see if he making it in or play at some futures in Europe.

He can go back to challenger level when some weaker challengers start in Asia.

[Dinesh]

This week;

Sasikumar Mukund faces WR# 682 Kelsey Stevenson in the first round at Cairo Fututes. Should be a straight set win!

[sameerph]

Yes, he started with an easy straight sets win.

At Egypt M15 Cairo ( Clay)

[R1] Sasi Kumar Mukund (IND,319) d. Kelsey Stevenson (CAN,682) 61 62

Next,

[R2] Sasi Kumar Mukund (IND,319) vs. (WC) Bautista Vilicich (ARG,1546)

[prasen9]

Good job by Sakumuku. Hope he goes deep in this tournament and wins it. He is not seeded here?

[Dinesh]

LOL. He is the top seed here,too. Sameer must have missed it by accident.

Second round seems an easy one on paper, but his opponent might be more familiar with the red clay surface as he is playing his 15th straight clay court tournament since 2019.

[jayakris]

Good job by Sakumuku.

Haha. Is that the name we call him when we are unsure if he is in his Sasi form or his Mukund form?

[Dinesh]

Sakumuku is very timely because he just lost tamely (2&2) to the ATP #1546

[prasen9]

Yep, Jay. But given that he lost to someone so lowly ranked, I think he is not Sakumuku but in the doghouse again.

I have no information and do not want to spread conspiracy theories. But, I am trying to figure out if a conspiracy theory is even possible here. Do players get hospitality in the event he is playing? That may explain why he is playing 9 weeks in a row. Maybe some of the weeks he is just playing to get some small amount of prize money? Or hospitality? Or a small amount of appearance fee? And, then just turning up and treating it as practice? Again, I do not have any information and do not want to take anything away from the victory by his conquerer this week. Just trying to find out if it is even possible to have such a motive ...

[jai_in_canada]

Sakumuku! I like it!
He won the previous round easily against a player ranked #682 and then lost the next round just as easily to a player ranked #1546.
It might just be that the rankings don't reflect ability on a specific surface at that level.

[prasen9]

True.

[sameerph]

Looks like Mukund has finally ended his Egypt tour after 9 weeks. It seems did not want to waste too much time on clay. But, then most of the tournaments all over the world in next couple of months are on clay. So, he will have to play on the surface somewhere.

[prasen9]

Huh, they finally kicked him out. I agree that Cairo is not as nice as Sharm El Sheikh. Staying for more weeks in Cairo is not appealing.

[sameerph]

He is back to Europe and playing qulifying in a challenger today.

At Ostrava Challenger 80, Czech Republic (Clay)

[Q1] Sasi Kumar Mukund (IND,312) vs. (6) Mats Moraing (GER,268)