Alex Michelsen and Kei Nishikori will fight against each other in the quarter of the Chicago Challenger for the 1st time in their career. They are scheduled to play on Friday at 1:00 pm on CENTER COURT. In this post, we analyze their head to head performance and prediction.
Prediction, odds and live streaming
The pick for Tennis Tonic is Kei Nishikori who should win in 2 sets.
As per the initial odds, Kei Nishikori is the pick to win this match.
Kei Nishikori -> 1.25
Alex Michelsen -> 3.75
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Prediction and head to head Alex Michelsen vs. Kei Nishikori
There is no head to head record between Alex Michelsen and Kei Nishikori since this will be the first time that they will square off in the main tour.
Alex Michelsen
| Year | Total | Hard | Clay | I.hard | Grass | Carpet |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 20-20 | 11-7 | 4-9 | 1-1 | 4-3 | 0-0 |
| 2023 | 61-27 | 30-13 | 4-3 | 19-7 | 8-4 | 0-0 |
| 2022 | 23-10 | 14-8 | 0-1 | 9-1 | 0-0 | 0-0 |
Ranked no. 250, the American got to the quarter after beating Li Tu 7-63 6-75 7-65 and Aleksandar Kovacevic 6-4 6-2.
In the 2nd round, Alex had a good straight sets win against Kovacevic (6-4 6-2). During the match, Michelsen scored 64 points vs Kovacevic’s 46. The American was quite aggressive to blast 26 winners.
Talking about the service games, Michelsen scored 5 aces and he was pretty steady in conceding no double faults. Alex Michelsen was quite efficient on serve to win 81% (26/32) of his 1st serve and 67% (12/18) on the second serve. This was the main reason for not conceding a single break during the match. Alex broke Kovacevic 3 times after converting 43% of his break points (3/7).
Overall Performance in this tournament
The American has dropped 1 set in this tournament to win 54% of the points he played.
Michelsen has a fantastic record in the last 2 years having won 71% of his matches (58-24). 17-6 on hard in 2023. Regarding his performance on the same surface of this competition, Michelsen has a composed31-14 win-loss record in the last 2 years on hard.
Alex’s best result of the season was reaching the final in M25 Malibu,M15 Edmond,the Rome Challenger and M25 Calabasas.
The American has a compiled 35-14 win-loss record in 2023, 17-6 on hard (See FULL STATS).
Previously in the Chicago Challenger
Alex has never competed in this tournament before.
Kei Nishikori
| Year | Total | Hard | Clay | I.hard | Grass | Carpet |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 1-2 | 0-1 | 1-1 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| 2023 | 10-3 | 10-3 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| 2022 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| 2021 | 26-17 | 15-9 | 7-4 | 2-2 | 2-2 | 0-0 |
| 2020 | 2-4 | 0-0 | 2-4 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 |
Ranked no. 501, Kei reached the quarter after beating Alexis Galarneau 7-63 6-1 and Skander Mansouri 7-61 6-4.
In the 2nd round, Nishikori had a good straight sets win against Mansouri (7-61 6-4). During the match Nishikori scored 86 points vs Mansouri’s 70. The Japanese was quite aggressive to blast 35 winners.
About the serving games, Nishikori scored just 1 ace during the entire match and he committed only 2 double faults. Kei Nishikori was pretty efficient on serve to win 85% (35/41) of his 1st serve and 68% (15/22) on the second serve. This was the main reason for not conceding a single break during the match. The Japanese broke Mansouri once after converting 13% of his break points (1/8).
Overall Performance in this tournament
The Japanese hasn’t dropped yet a set in the tournament to win 56% of the points he played.
His best result of the season was winning the title the Palmas del Mar Challenger where he defeated Michael Zheng in the final 6-2 7-5.
Nishikori has a compiled 8-1 win-loss record in 2023, 8-1 on hard (See FULL STATS).
H2H Performance in the tournament (main draw)
Matches, sets, games and points
| Points | Michelsen | Nishikori |
|---|---|---|
| Match played | 2 | 2 |
| Tot Set | 5 | 4 |
| Tot Games | 57 | 43 |
| Pts | 187-161 | 149-116 |
| Total Points | 348 | 265 |
| Winners | 83 | 65 |
| %Winners | 44% | 44% |
Both Michelsen and Nishikori played 2 matches. At the moment, Alex Michelsen lost 1 set while Kei Nishikori hasn’t dropped a set so far. Michelsen has played 1 set more than Nishikori (5 vs 4). Therefore, Michelsen played 14 games more than Nishikori. The American scored 83 winners (44% of the total points). On the other side, The Japanese struck 65 winners (44%).
Serve Performance
| Serve | Michelsen | Nishikori |
|---|---|---|
| Aces | 18 | 4 |
| Avg per match | 9 | 2 |
| 1st in | 107/165 | 82/121 |
| %1st in | 65% | 68% |
| 1st pts | 83/107 | 65/82 |
| %1st pts | 78% | 79% |
| 2nd pts | 43/58 | 24/39 |
| %2nd pts | 74% | 62% |
Michelsen bagged 18 aces (9 per match). Nishikori struck 4 aces (2 per match). Michelsen won 78% points behind his first serve. He very solid his second serve to win 74% of the points. On the other side, Nishikori won 79% of the points behind his first serve. He had a solid display on his second serve to win 62% of the points.
How they played the important points
| Breaks | Michelsen | Nishikori |
|---|---|---|
| Won | 3 | 5 |
| Converted | 3/13 | 5/13 |
| % Converted | 23% | 38% |
| Conceded | 7 | 3 |
| Saved | 7 | 1 |
| % Saved | 100% | 33% |
| Times Broken | 0 | 2 |
The American broke his opponents 3 times with a 23% conversion rate. Alex extremely effective on his serve as he has never conceded a single service game after saving 7 break points. Nishikori broke his opponents 5 times with a 38% conversion rate. Kei conceded his serve twice and he saved 33% of the break points that he conceded.
| Michelsen | ||||
| R1 Tu |
R2 Kovacevic |
Total | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Score | 7-63 6-75 7-65 | 6-4 6-2 | ||
| Tot Set | 3 | 2 | 5 | |
| Tot Games | 39 | 18 | 57 | |
| pts | 123-115 | 64-46 | 187-161 | |
| Total points | 238 | 110 | 348 | |
| Winners | 57 | 26 | 83 | |
| %Winners | 46% | 41% | 44% | |
| SERVE | ||||
| Aces | 13 | 5 | 18 | |
| Double Faults | 4 | 0 | 4 | |
| 1st in | 75/115 | 32/50 | 107/165 | |
| % 1st in | 65% | 64% | 65% | |
| 1st pts | 57/75 | 26/32 | 83/107 | |
| % 1st pts | 76% | 81% | 78% | |
| 2nd pts | 31/40 | 12/18 | 43/58 | |
| % 2nd pts | 78% | 67% | 74% | |
| Breaks | ||||
| Won | 0 | 3 | 3 | |
| Converted | 0/6 | 3/7 | 3/13 | |
| Converted % | 0% | 43% | 23% | |
| Conceded | 5 | 2 | 7 | |
| Saved | 5/5 | 2/2 | 7 | |
| Saved % | 100% | 100% | 100% | |
| Times Broken | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Nishikori | ||||
| R1 Galarneau |
R2 Mansouri |
Total | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Score | 7-63 6-1 | 7-61 6-4 | ||
| Tot Set | 2 | 2 | 4 | |
| Tot Games | 20 | 23 | 43 | |
| pts | 63-46 | 86-70 | 149-116 | |
| Total points | 109 | 156 | 265 | |
| Winners | 30 | 35 | 65 | |
| %Winners | 48% | 41% | 44% | |
| SERVE | ||||
| Aces | 3 | 1 | 4 | |
| Double Faults | 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| 1st in | 41/58 | 41/63 | 82/121 | |
| % 1st in | 71% | 65% | 68% | |
| 1st pts | 30/41 | 35/41 | 65/82 | |
| % 1st pts | 73% | 85% | 79% | |
| 2nd pts | 9/17 | 15/22 | 24/39 | |
| % 2nd pts | 53% | 68% | 62% | |
| Breaks | ||||
| Won | 4 | 1 | 5 | |
| Converted | 4/5 | 1/8 | 5/13 | |
| Converted % | 80% | 13% | 38% | |
| Conceded | 2 | 1 | 3 | |
| Saved | 0/2 | 1/1 | 1 | |
| Saved % | 0% | 100% | 50% | |
| Times Broken | 2 | 0 | 2 | |
Head 2 Head
WWLWWLLLLW
LWL 
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