Nicolas Alvarez Varona and James McCabe will play each other in the 2nd round of the Malaga Challenger for the 1st time in their career. They are scheduled to compete on Thursday at 7:00 pm on CENTER COURT. In the following lines you can find the head to head analysis and prediction.
Prediction, odds and live streaming
The pick for Tennis Tonic is Nicolas Alvarez Varona who should win in 3 sets.
As per the initial odds, Nicolas Alvarez Varona is the pick to win this match.
Nicolas Alvarez Varona -> 1.62
James McCabe -> 2.3
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Prediction and head to head Nicolas Alvarez Varona vs. James McCabe
There is no head to head record between Nicolas Alvarez Varona and James McCabe since this will be the first time that they will clash against each other in the main tour.
Nicolas Alvarez Varona
| Year | Total | Hard | Clay | I.hard | Grass | Carpet |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 30-24 | 13-7 | 17-17 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| 2024 | 43-26 | 4-3 | 36-19 | 3-4 | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| 2023 | 9-9 | 3-2 | 6-7 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| 2022 | 24-34 | 3-7 | 13-19 | 8-8 | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| 2021 | 40-26 | 11-8 | 29-17 | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0-0 |
Ranked no. 270, Nicolas reached the 2nd round after defeating Ernesto Escobedo 7-64 6-3.
In the 1st round, The Spaniard had a good straight sets win against Escobedo (7-64 6-3). During the match, Alvarez Varona scored 76 points vs Escobedo’s 69. Nicolas was extremely aggressive to blast 38 winners.
Regarding the service games, Alvarez Varona fired 11 aces and he committed only 1 double fault. Nicolas Alvarez Varona was pretty effective on serve to win 72% (38/53) of his 1st serve and 56% (14/25) on the second serve. This was the main reason for not conceding a single break during the match. The Spaniard broke Escobedo twice after converting 29% of his break points (2/7).
Alvarez Varona has a winning win-loss record in the last 7 years having won 59% of his matches (134-93). 1-0 on hard in 2022. In connection with his performance on the same surface of this tournament, Alvarez Varona has a compiled71-38 win-loss record in the last 7 years on hard.
Alvarez Varona has an overall 10-14 win-loss record in 2022, 1-0 on hard (See FULL STATS).
Previously in the Malaga Challenger
Nicolas has never competed in this tournament before.
James McCabe
| Year | Total | Hard | Clay | I.hard | Grass | Carpet |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 34-36 | 24-28 | 0-2 | 3-1 | 7-5 | 0-0 |
| 2024 | 55-35 | 47-28 | 1-2 | 1-1 | 6-4 | 0-0 |
| 2023 | 29-27 | 24-14 | 2-6 | 1-3 | 2-4 | 0-0 |
| 2022 | 39-27 | 30-19 | 9-8 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| 2021 | 17-5 | 17-5 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 |
Ranked no. 520 (career-high), James reached the 2nd round after beating Thai Kwiatkowski 6-1 0-0 ret., Alejandro Turriziani Alvarez 6-1 6-0 and Antoine Escoffier 2-6 6-3 6-0.
In the 1st round against Escoffier, James recovered from a 1-set down deficit before winning (2-6 6-3 6-0). During the match McCabe scored 82 points vs Escoffier’s 70. The Australian was very aggressive to blast 39 winners.
Talking about serving, McCabe blasted 9 aces and he committed only 2 double faults. James McCabe lost the serve twice and he saved 7 break points. Furthermore, McCabe put 70% of his first serves in, winning 63% (39/62) of the points behind his 1st serve and 59% (16/27) on the 2nd serve. McCabe broke Escoffier 4 times after converting 50% of his break points (4/8).
The Australian’s best result of the current year was getting to the final in M25 Canberra and M25 Bendigo.
James has a composed 26-14 win-loss record in 2022, 18-7 on hard (See FULL STATS).
H2H Performance in the tournament
Matches, sets, games and points
| Points | Alvarez Varona | McCabe |
|---|---|---|
| Match played | 1 | 3 |
| Tot Set | 2 | 8 |
| Tot Games | 22 | 43 |
| Pts | 76-69 | 161-102 |
| Total Points | 145 | 263 |
| Winners | 38 | 65 |
| %Winners | 50% | 40% |
Alvarez Varona played 1 match while McCabe competed in 3 matches. McCabe started his run from the qualifications while Alvarez Varona had a direct access to the main draw. At the moment, James McCabe dropped 1 set while Nicolas Alvarez Varona hasn’t lost a set so far. Alvarez Varona has played 6 set(s) less than McCabe (2 vs 8). Therefore, Alvarez Varona played 21 games less than McCabe. Nicolas scored 38 winners (50% of the total points). On the other side, McCabe bagged 65 winners (40%).
Serve Performance
| Serve | Alvarez Varona | McCabe |
|---|---|---|
| Aces | 11 | 18 |
| Avg per match | 11 | 6 |
| 1st in | 53/78 | 89/139 |
| %1st in | 68% | 64% |
| 1st pts | 38/53 | 65/89 |
| %1st pts | 72% | 73% |
| 2nd pts | 14/25 | 34/50 |
| %2nd pts | 56% | 68% |
Alvarez Varona blasted 11 aces . McCabe recorded 18 aces (6 per match). Alvarez Varona won 72% points behind his first serve. He very solid his second serve to win 56% of the points. On the other side, McCabe won 73% of the points behind his first serve. He had a solid display on his second serve to win 68% of the points.
How they played the important points
| Breaks | Alvarez Varona | McCabe |
|---|---|---|
| Won | 2 | 11 |
| Converted | 2/7 | 11/20 |
| % Converted | 29% | 55% |
| Conceded | 6 | 9 |
| Saved | 6 | 7 |
| % Saved | 100% | 78% |
| Times Broken | 0 | 2 |
Alvarez Varona broke his opponent twice with a 29% conversion rate. The Spaniard was rock solid on his serve as he has never conceded a single service game after saving 6 break points. James broke his opponents 11 times with a 55% conversion rate. James conceded his serve twice and he saved 78% of the break points that he conceded.
| Alvarez Varona | |||
| R1 Escobedo |
Total | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Score | 7-64 6-3 | ||
| Tot Set | 2 | 2 | |
| Tot Games | 22 | 22 | |
| pts | 76-69 | 76-69 | |
| Total points | 145 | 145 | |
| Winners | 38 | 38 | |
| %Winners | 50% | 50% | |
| SERVE | |||
| Aces | 11 | 11 | |
| Double Faults | 1 | 1 | |
| 1st in | 53/78 | 53/78 | |
| % 1st in | 68% | 68% | |
| 1st pts | 38/53 | 38/53 | |
| % 1st pts | 72% | 72% | |
| 2nd pts | 14/25 | 14/25 | |
| % 2nd pts | 56% | 56% | |
| Breaks | |||
| Won | 2 | 2 | |
| Converted | 2/7 | 2/7 | |
| Converted % | 29% | 29% | |
| Conceded | 6 | 6 | |
| Saved | 6/6 | 6 | |
| Saved % | 100% | 100% | |
| Times Broken | 0 | 0 | |
| McCabe | |||||
| Q1 Kwiatkowski |
Q3 Turriziani |
R1 Escoffier |
Total | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Score | 6-1 0-0 ret. | 6-1 6-0 | 2-6 6-3 6-0 | ||
| Tot Set | 2 | 2 | 3 | 7 | |
| Tot Games | 7 | 13 | 23 | 43 | |
| pts | 24-7 | 55-25 | 82-70 | 161-102 | |
| Total points | 31 | 80 | 152 | 263 | |
| Winners | 10 | 16 | 39 | 65 | |
| %Winners | 42% | 29% | 48% | 40% | |
| SERVE | |||||
| Aces | 5 | 4 | 9 | 18 | |
| Double Faults | 0 | 2 | 2 | 4 | |
| 1st in | 10/16 | 17/34 | 62/89 | 89/139 | |
| % 1st in | 63% | 50% | 70% | 64% | |
| 1st pts | 10/10 | 16/17 | 39/62 | 65/89 | |
| % 1st pts | 100% | 94% | 63% | 73% | |
| 2nd pts | 6/6 | 12/17 | 16/27 | 34/50 | |
| % 2nd pts | 100% | 71% | 59% | 68% | |
| Breaks | |||||
| Won | 2 | 5 | 4 | 11 | |
| Converted | 2/4 | 5/8 | 4/8 | 11/20 | |
| Converted % | 50% | 63% | 50% | 55% | |
| Conceded | 0 | 0 | 9 | 9 | |
| Saved | 0/0 | 0/0 | 7/9 | 7 | |
| Saved % | – | – | 78% | 78% | |
| Times Broken | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | |
Head 2 Head
LWWWLWLLLW
LWWLWWWLLW Tennis Scores in Malaga Challenger
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