Prajnesh Gunneswaran told me not to repeat the same mistake he did: Sasi Kumar Mukund

CHENNAI: AT the beginning of 2017, Sasi Kumar Mukund had a light-bulb moment. Having just turned 20, he wanted to move beyond the Futures circuit and join the Challengers. Considering his rank at the time — 516 — it was a gutsy call. Quite a few Indians have been known to stay in the Futures till entering the top 400 but the Chennai lad wanted to accelerate his growth.

Having played 12 Challenger events from 2012 to 2016, he played 10 Challengers in 2017 alone. Even though he lost six times in the qualifiers and the first round the other four times, he was convinced that this was going to be his pathway. Two years later, he is finally reaping the benefits of opting for short-term pain for long-term gain.

On Thursday, he beat third seed Mohamed Safwat at the Chennai Open Challenger to reach the quarterfinals at this level for the fourth time in five outings in a little less than four months. After multiple failures to begin 2018, he first made the quarterfinals in Anning (China) in April before he closed out the year with similar runs in Shenzhen (China), Bengaluru and Pune. His end of season form promptly made Mahesh Bhupathi call him up for the first time for Davis Cup duty against Italy.

Watching the Italians dismantle the Indians on grass, the World No 293 further resolved to change the way he approached matches. “(I) want to play more freely,” he said after beating the Egyptian. “That’s what I saw in the Davis Cup also. You can’t just beat top-50 players by putting balls back in play. If you want to be at that level, you need to show courage.”

By courage, he means not just showing fight and spirit but being aggressive. “It’s something that Prajnesh (Gunneswaran) has been telling me, ‘don’t make the same mistakes that I made. Don’t get defensive when it comes to those tight points because it won’t get you anywhere.” Aggression was one of the reasons behind his rise at this level over the last six months.

Mukund, who trains in Vienna under Peter Spottl, has developed another weapon, a big serve. “I have been working on it since I was 16 or 17. It should be an important weapon because it gets you free points...” Against the 28-year-old Safwat, who played the French Open last year, he married those two traits to perfection.

On Friday, Great Britain’s Brydan Klein stands between Mukund and a maiden semifinal appearance.    

Results (Rd 3, Indians only): Prajnesh Gunneswaran bt Arjun Kadhe 6-4, 6-2; Sasi Kumar Mukund bt Mohamed Safwat (Egy) 6-3, 6-4; Alejandro Davidovich Fokina (Esp) bt Saketh Myneni 6-3, 7-6 (3).

Friday’s matches (singles quarterfinals): Gunneswaran vs James Duckworth (Aus); Mukund vs Bryden Klein (Grb); Nicola Kuhn (Esp) vs Corentin Moutet (Fra); Andrew Harris (Aus) vs Fokina.