Following his first round win at the ATP 50 Bengaluru Challenger, former World No.229 Mukund Sasikumar reflected on a hard-fought match, the emotional highs and lows of tennis, and the difficult personal and professional challenges he has faced in recent years. He spoke candidly about change, loss, relocating to Delhi, and how tennis remains the place where he finds purpose. Now with a new team and renewed energy, he says he has “a lot left” to give.
Q: Hello, Sasi. Congratulations on your first main draw win. What are your thoughts on today’s match?
Mukund: Very happy in general. I had a tough couple of losses in the beginning of the year, so it’s a great feeling to get through. Yeah, it could have been an easier scoreline, but that’s tennis. I think it’s never a perfect outcome. You always have to be ready for surprises and ups and downs.
And I think that’s something that I did really well today. I stayed in the present for the whole match and wasn’t dwelling in the past. And yeah, I think that got me through today. But other than that, the tennis is getting better. I think I’m finding second wind. After a tough couple of years, I feel good again. And yeah, I’m looking forward to keeping the momentum going mentally and physically.
But it’s always good to be back in Bangalore. That’s always a special thing for some reason. Many friends and childhood friends, so a lot of familiar faces. So it’s nice to meet all of them and play.
Q: During the first set and then early in the second, you had an early break and also had two or three break points on his serve. Then after getting broken back, you recovered well, and in the tiebreaker you were pretty straightforward. How did you stay focused through all of that?
Mukund: That’s just tennis. Like I said, there is never a perfect match. That’s very rare. If you look at all the break points, I don’t think I did something very wrong. He also played a lot of good points, went for it, made a lot of good shots.
Some days, of course, they will go in your favor and maybe it will be a different score. And at 5–4, it’s the hardest thing to serve out a match. It’s never easy. And it’s not like I played a bad game or anything. He also played good tennis. So it’s not like I did something very alarmingly bad to get back on the drawing board. That’s just tennis.
Sometimes it’s a very emotional sport, and we all have to accept the emotional challenge that it presents. Like I said, it’s always up and down. Yeah, that’s going to be part of a player’s life — to be ready for those moments. That’s just how the sport is and the scoring system is.
Q: It’s been a tough year for you, but physically you looked very sharp today and your movement was very good. How is the motivation when things are not going your way?
Mukund: Well, I don’t want to sound very heroic and dramatic and say I’m always motivated. There were definitely a lot of dark days, especially last year, 2025, with my ex-coach getting blood cancer and completely changing my base and fully moving to another country, city — which is Delhi. So a lot of tough moments, tough years.
But I always think about what would I have done if not for tennis? But I never have that answer. If I had that answer, I would have probably gone to do something else. But I feel my life belongs here. There is nothing else that I can think of when I wake up. So I think success or failure, happiness or sadness, for me, it’s always on the tennis court. I feel… I don’t know what is there to life other than that. So I think that’s what has helped me push through those tough years, especially post-COVID-19. It’s not like there’s not more to life — don’t get me wrong. That’s not what I mean. Tennis is not everything.
But I don’t think anything else would make me feel complete about my day. At the end of the day, you need to feel good about yourself. And you have to live with your decisions. And yeah, I think if I had given up, I wouldn’t have been happy for the rest of my life. So that’s the reason I kept pushing.
And then I definitely found second wind now, like I said — a new team, new beginnings. And yeah, I think the first innings, we can say, is pretty much done. But I think I have a lot left in me to give. I’m not gonna go anywhere until I give it my best shot. Because like I said, a lot of other things you can do for the rest of your life. But when you have the privilege and the opportunity to give your dream a shot, I think it has to be given completely in terms of time and effort. So I think, yeah, whether I end up coming out on the right side or I don’t, I think I’ll have the satisfaction for the rest of my life that I gave it all I had. And I think that’s more important than any number, ranking, achievement, or credentials in your career.
At the end of the day, you have to sleep with yourself and be with yourself and live with your decisions, like I said. So that’s what I am going after. And yeah, it’s going good so far. And I hope there are more good moments that I can look back later on in life.