Jozef Kovalik and Akira Santillan will square off in the 2nd round of the Heilbronn Challenger for the 1st time in their career. They are scheduled to compete on Thursday at 12:00 pm on CENTER COURT. In the following paragraphs, you can find the head to head analysis and prediction.
Prediction, odds and live streaming
The pick for Tennis Tonic is Jozef Kovalik who should win in 3 sets.
As per the initial odds, Jozef Kovalik is the pick to win this match.
Jozef Kovalik -> 1.53
Akira Santillan -> 2.38
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Prediction and head to head Jozef Kovalik vs. Akira Santillan
There is no head to head record between Jozef Kovalik and Akira Santillan since this will be the first time that they will play each other in the main tour.
Jozef Kovalik
| Year | Total | Hard | Clay | I.hard | Grass | Carpet |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 4-11 | 2-4 | 2-4 | 0-3 | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| 2024 | 36-25 | 3-5 | 30-15 | 3-4 | 0-1 | 0-0 |
| 2023 | 23-34 | 1-3 | 21-28 | 1-2 | 0-1 | 0-0 |
| 2022 | 33-23 | 3-6 | 29-13 | 1-3 | 0-1 | 0-0 |
| 2021 | 31-27 | 0-1 | 26-20 | 5-5 | 0-1 | 0-0 |
Ranked no. 143, the Slovakian got to the 2nd round after beating Maximilian Marterer 3-6 6-2 7-65.
In the 1st round against Marterer, Jozef recovered from a 1-set down deficit before winning (3-6 6-2 7-65). During the match, Kovalik scored 100 points vs Marterer’s 93. Jozef was pretty aggressive to blast 33 winners.
Talking about the service games, Kovalik recorded 5 aces and he committed only 3 double faults. Overall, Jozef Kovalik was exceptionally efficient on serve to win 73% (33/45) of his 1st serve and 56% (20/36) on the second serve. However, this didn’t prevent his to concede the serve 3 times. Kovalik broke Marterer 4 times after converting 44% of his break points (4/9).
Kovalik has positive win-loss record in the last 10 years having won 56% of his matches (321-250). 7-13 on clay in 2023. In connection with his performance on the same surface of this competition, Kovalik has a compiled 247-158 record in the last years on clay.
Jozef has an overall 9-17 win-loss record in 2023, 7-13 on clay (See FULL STATS).
Previously in the Heilbronn Challenger
Akira Santillan
| Year | Total | Hard | Clay | I.hard | Grass | Carpet |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 24-8 | 11-4 | 6-2 | 7-2 | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| 2024 | 3-7 | 3-6 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| 2023 | 39-33 | 11-13 | 21-14 | 7-6 | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| 2022 | 37-28 | 28-19 | 9-8 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-1 |
| 2021 | 20-15 | 2-5 | 12-7 | 6-3 | 0-0 | 0-0 |
Ranked no. 374, Santillan reached the 2nd round after defeating Conner Huertas Del Pino 6-1 6-2, Liam Gavrielides 6-0 6-4 and Marco Cecchinato 7-5 6-3.
In the 1st round, Akira had a good straight sets win against Cecchinato (7-5 6-3). During the match Santillan scored 71 points vs Cecchinato’s 57. Santillan was extremely aggressive to blast 26 winners.
About the serving games, Santillan managed to score 6 aces and he committed only 4 double faults. Overall, Akira Santillan was extremely efficient on serve to win 90% (26/29) of his 1st serve and 52% (12/23) on the second serve. However, this didn’t prevent his to concede the serve once. Akira broke Cecchinato 4 times after converting 40% of his break points (4/10).
Santillan’s best result of the current year was reaching the final in M25 Portimao.
The Australian has a compiled 19-16 win-loss record in 2023, 12-7 on clay (See FULL STATS).
H2H Performance in the tournament
Matches, sets, games and points
| Points | Kovalik | Santillan |
|---|---|---|
| Match played | 1 | 3 |
| Tot Set | 3 | 6 |
| Tot Games | 30 | 52 |
| Pts | 100-93 | 189-132 |
| Total Points | 193 | 321 |
| Winners | 33 | 70 |
| %Winners | 33% | 37% |
Kovalik played 1 match while Santillan competed in 3 matches. Santillan started his run from the qualifications while Kovalik had a direct access to the main draw. At the moment, Jozef Kovalik lost 1 set while Akira Santillan hasn’t conceded a set so far. Kovalik has played 3 set(s) less than Santillan (3 vs 6). Therefore, Kovalik played 22 games less than Santillan. Kovalik scored 33 winners (33% of the total points). On the other side, Akira struck 70 winners (37%).
Serve Performance
| Serve | Kovalik | Santillan |
|---|---|---|
| Aces | 5 | 13 |
| Avg per match | 5 | 4.3 |
| 1st in | 45/81 | 87/147 |
| %1st in | 56% | 59% |
| 1st pts | 33/45 | 70/87 |
| %1st pts | 73% | 80% |
| 2nd pts | 20/36 | 33/60 |
| %2nd pts | 56% | 55% |
Kovalik recorded 5 aces . Santillan struck 13 aces (4.3 per match). Kovalik won 73% points on his first serve. He was rock solid on his second serve to win 56% of the points. On the other side, Santillan won 80% of the points behind his first serve. He had a solid display on his second serve to win 55% of the points.
How they played the important points
| Breaks | Kovalik | Santillan |
|---|---|---|
| Won | 4 | 14 |
| Converted | 4/9 | 14/23 |
| % Converted | 44% | 61% |
| Conceded | 4 | 5 |
| Saved | 1 | 2 |
| % Saved | 25% | 40% |
| Times Broken | 3 | 3 |
The Slovakian broke his opponent 4 times with a 44% conversion rate. Kovalik dropped his serve 3 times and he saved 25% of the break points that he conceded. Akira broke his opponents 14 times with a 61% conversion rate. The Australian conceded his serve 3 times and he saved 40% of the break points that he conceded.
| Kovalik | |||
| R1 Marterer |
Total | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Score | 3-6 6-2 7-65 | ||
| Tot Set | 3 | 3 | |
| Tot Games | 30 | 30 | |
| pts | 100-93 | 100-93 | |
| Total points | 193 | 193 | |
| Winners | 33 | 33 | |
| %Winners | 33% | 33% | |
| SERVE | |||
| Aces | 5 | 5 | |
| Double Faults | 3 | 3 | |
| 1st in | 45/81 | 45/81 | |
| % 1st in | 56% | 56% | |
| 1st pts | 33/45 | 33/45 | |
| % 1st pts | 73% | 73% | |
| 2nd pts | 20/36 | 20/36 | |
| % 2nd pts | 56% | 56% | |
| Breaks | |||
| Won | 4 | 4 | |
| Converted | 4/9 | 4/9 | |
| Converted % | 44% | 44% | |
| Conceded | 4 | 4 | |
| Saved | 1/4 | 1 | |
| Saved % | 25% | 25% | |
| Times Broken | 3 | 3 | |
| Santillan | |||||
| Q1 Huertas Del Pino |
Q3 Gavrielides |
R1 Cecchinato |
Total | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Score | 6-1 6-2 | 6-0 6-4 | 7-5 6-3 | ||
| Tot Set | 2 | 2 | 2 | 6 | |
| Tot Games | 15 | 16 | 21 | 52 | |
| pts | 57-34 | 61-41 | 71-57 | 189-132 | |
| Total points | 91 | 102 | 128 | 321 | |
| Winners | 20 | 24 | 26 | 70 | |
| %Winners | 35% | 39% | 37% | 37% | |
| SERVE | |||||
| Aces | 2 | 5 | 6 | 13 | |
| Double Faults | 2 | 5 | 4 | 11 | |
| 1st in | 25/42 | 33/53 | 29/52 | 87/147 | |
| % 1st in | 60% | 62% | 56% | 59% | |
| 1st pts | 20/25 | 24/33 | 26/29 | 70/87 | |
| % 1st pts | 80% | 73% | 90% | 80% | |
| 2nd pts | 10/17 | 11/20 | 12/23 | 33/60 | |
| % 2nd pts | 59% | 55% | 52% | 55% | |
| Breaks | |||||
| Won | 5 | 5 | 4 | 14 | |
| Converted | 5/7 | 5/6 | 4/10 | 14/23 | |
| Converted % | 71% | 83% | 40% | 61% | |
| Conceded | 1 | 2 | 2 | 5 | |
| Saved | 0/1 | 1/2 | 1/2 | 2 | |
| Saved % | 0% | 50% | 50% | 100% | |
| Times Broken | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | |
Head 2 Head
LLLLWWLLLL
LWLWWWLWWL Tennis Scores in Heilbronn Challenger
- Daniel Elahi GalanElahi Galan – Felipe Meligeni AlvesMeligeni Alves (5-7 6-0 6-2) – Stats, scores, rankings
- Jaume Antoni Munar ClarAntoni Munar Clar – Timofey SkatovSkatov (6-2 7-5) – Stats, scores, rankings
- Rudolf MollekerMolleker – Fabian MarozsanMarozsan (7-5 6-4) – Stats, scores, rankings
- Matteo ArnaldiMatteo – Marko TopoMarko (2-6 6-3 6-1) – See score progression
Upcoming matches in the draw
- Daniel Elahi GalanElahi Galan – Rudolf MollekerMolleker (1-0) – H2H and prediction
- Pedro Martinez PorteroMartinez Portero – Dominic ThiemThiem (0-0) – H2H and prediction
- Akira SantillanSantillan – Jozef KovalikKovalik (0-0) – H2H and prediction
- Maxime JanvierJanvier – Facundo Diaz AcostaDiaz Acosta (0-0) – H2H and prediction
- Pavel KotovKotov – Dan AddedAdded (1-0) – H2H and prediction
